CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SERIES 

Edited by 
Sir G. W. Prothero, K.B.E., F.B.A., Litt.D. 

Hon. LL.D. of Edinburgh and Harvard, and Honorary 
Fellow of King's College, Cambridge 



HISTORY 

OF 

HOLLAND 



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II ^' 



iX 



HISTORY 

OF 

HOLLAND 



BY 

GEORGE EDMUNDSON 

> « 

D.LiTT., F.R.G.S., F.R.HIST.S. 

SOMETIME FELLOW OF BRASENOSE COLLEGE, OXFORD 

HON. MEMBER OF THE DUTCH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, UTRECHT 

FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE NETHERLAND SOCIETY OF 

LITERATURE, LEYDEN 



CAMBRIDGE 

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 

1922 



GENERAL PREFACE 

The aim of this series is to sketch the history of Modern Europe ^ with 
that of its chief colonies and conquests Jrom about the end of the fifteenth 
century down to the present time. In one or two cases the story com- 
mences at an earlier date; in the case of the colonies it generally begins 
later. The histories of the different countries are described^ as a rule, 
separately ; for it is believed that, except in epochs like that of the French 
Revolution and Napoleon /, the connection of events will thus be better 
understood and the continuity of historical development more clearly 
displayed. 

The series is intended for the use of all persons anxious to understand 
the nature of existing political conditions. ' The roots of the present lie 
deep in the past '; and the real significance of contemporary events cannot 
be grasped unless the historical causes which have led to them are known. 
The plan adopted makes it possible to treat the history of the last four 
centuries in considerable detail, and to embody the most important results 
of modern research. It is hoped therefore that the series will be useful 
not only to beginners but to students who have already acquired some 
general knowledge of European History. For those who wish to carry 
their studies further , the bibliography appended to each volume will act 
as a guide to original sources of information and works of a more special 
character. 

Considerable attention is paid to political geography; and each volume 
is furnished with such maps and plans as may be requisite for the illus- 
tration of the text. 

G. W. PROTHERO. 



PROLOGUE 

THE title, "History of Holland," given to this volume is fully 
justified by the predominant part which the great maritime 
province of Holland took in the War of Independence and 
throughout the whole of the subsequent history of the Dutch state 
and people. In every language the country, comprising the provinces 
of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland, Gelderland, Overyssel and 
Groningen, has, from the close of the sixteenth century to our own 
day, been currently spoken of as Holland, and the people (with the 
solitary exception of ourselves) as 'Hollanders^.' It is only rarely 
that the terms the Republic of the United Provinces, or of the 
United Netherlands, and in later times the Kingdom of the Nether- 
lands, are found outside official documents. Just as the title 
"History of England" gradually includes the histories of Wales, 
of Scotland, of Ireland, and finally of the wide-spread British 
Empire, so is it in a smaller way with the history that is told in the 
following pages. That history, to be really complete, should begin 
with an account of mediaeval Holland in the feudal times which 
preceded the Burgundian period ; and such an account was indeed 
actually written, but the plan of this work, which forms one of the 
volumes of a series, precluded its publication. 

The character, however, of the people of the province of Holland, 
and of its sister and closely allied province of Zeeland, its qualities 
of toughness, of endurance, of seamanship and maritime enterprise, 
spring from the peculiar amphibious nature of the country, which 
differs from that of any other country in the world. The age-long 
struggle against the ocean and the river floods, which has con- 
verted the marshes, that lay around the mouths of the Rhine, the 
Meuse and the Scheldt, by toilsome labour and skill into fertile 
and productive soil, has left its impress on the whole history of this 
people. Nor must it be forgotten how largely this building up 
of the elaborate system of dykes, dams and canals by which this 
water-logged land was transformed into the Holland of the closing 

^ Hollandais, Hollander, Olandesi, Olandeses, etc. 



viii PROLOGUE 

decades of the sixteenth century, enabled her people to offer such 
obstinate and successful resistance to the mighty power of Philip 11. 

y The earliest dynasty of the Counts of Holland — Dirks, Floris, 
and Williams — was a very remarkable one. Not only did it rule 
for an unusually long period, 922 to 1299, but in this long period 
without exception all the Counts of Holland were strong and capable 
rulers. The fiefs of the first two Dirks lay in what is now known as 
North Holland, in the district called Kennemerland. It was Dirk HI 
who seized from the bishops of Utrecht some swampy land amidst 
the channels forming the mouth of the Meuse, which, from the bush 
which covered it, was named Holt-land (Holland or Wood-land). 
Here he erected, in 1 01 5, a stronghold to collect tolls from passing 
ships. This stronghold was the beginning of the town of Dordrecht, 
and from here a little later the name Holland was gradually applied 
to the whole county. Of his successors the most illustrious was 
William H (1234 ^^ ^^S^) who was crowned King of the Romans 
at Aachen, and would have received from Pope Innocent IV the 
imperial crown at Rome, had he not been unfortunately drowned 
while attempting to cross on horseback an ice-bound marsh. 

In 1299 the male line of this dynasty became extinct; and John 
of Avennes, Count of Hainault, nephew of William II, succeeded. 
His son, William III, after a long struggle with the Counts of 
Flanders, conquered Zeeland and became Count henceforth of 
Holland, Zeeland and Hainault. His son, William IV, died childless ; 
and the succession then passed to his sister Margaret, the wife of 
the Emperor Lewis of Bavaria. It was contested by her second son 
William, who, after a long drawn-out strife with his mother, 
became, in 1354, Count of Holland and Zeeland with the title 
. William V, Margaret retaining the county of Hainault. Becoming 

' insane, his brother Albert in 1358 took over the reins of govern- 
ment. In his time the two factions, known by the nicknames of 
"the Hooks" and "the Cods," kept the land in a continual state of 
disorder and practically of civil war. They had already been active 
for many years. The Hooks were supported by the nobles, by the 
peasantry and by that large part of the poorer townsfolk that was 
excluded from all share in the municipal government. The Cods 
represented the interests of the powerful burgher corporations. 
In later times these same principles and interests divided the 
Orangist and the States parties, and were inherited from the 



PROLOGUE ix 

Hooks and Cods of mediaeval Holland. The marriages of Albert's 
son, William, with Margaret the sister of John the Fearless, Duke 
of Burgundy, and of John the Fearless with Albert's daughter, 
Margaret, were to have momentous consequences. Albert died in 
1404 and was succeeded by William VI, who before his death in 
1 41 7 caused the nobles and towns to take the oath of allegiance 
to his daughter and only child, Jacoba or Jacqueline^. 

Jacoba, brave, beautiful and gifted, for eleven years maintained 
her rights against many adversaries, chief among them her power- 
ful and ambitious cousin, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. 
Her courage and many adventures transformed her into a veritable 
heroine of romance. By her three marriages with John, Duke of 
Brabant, with Humphry, Duke of Gloucester, and, finally, with 
Frans van Borselen, she had no children. Her hopeless fight with 
Philip of Burgundy's superior resources ended at last in the so- 
called " Reconciliation of Delft " in 1428, by which, while retaining 
the title of countess, she handed over the government to Philip 
and acknowledged his right of succession to the Countship upon 
her death, which took place in 1436. 

G. E. 



November, 1921 



^ In French books and documents, Jacqueline. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGES 

General Preface . v 

Prologue vii-ix 

CHAP. 

I. The Burgundian Netherlands . . . i-ii 

II. Habsburg Rule in the Netherlands . . 12-26 

III. The Prelude to the Revolt .... 27-46 

IV. The Revolt of the Netherlands . . . 47-68 
V. William the Silent ./.... 69-81 

VI. The Beginnings of the D^/tch Republic . . 82-109 

VII. The System of Government . . . 110-118 

VIII. The Twelve Years' Truce .... 1 19-126 

IX. Maurice and Oldenbarneveldt . . . 127-138 

X. From the end of the Twelve Years' Truce to the 
Peace of Munster, 1621-1648. The Stad- 

holderate of Frederick Henry of Orange. . 139-158 

XI. The East and West India Companies. Com- 
mercial and Economic Expansion . . . 159-185 

Q ^y* Letters, Science and Art . . . . 186-201 

XIII. The Stadholderate of William II. The Great 
Assembly . . . . . . . 202-211 

XIV. Rise of John de Witt. The First English War 212-224 

XV. The Administration of John de Witt, 1 654-1 665 , 
from the Peace of Westminster to the Out- 
break of the Second English War . . 225-235 



CONTENTS 

CHAP. 

XVI. The last years of De Witt's Administration, 
1 665-1 672. The Second English War. The 
Triple Alliance The French Invasion 

XVII. War with France and England. William III, 
Stadholder. Murder of the brothers De 
Witt, 1672 . . . 

XVIII. The Stadholderate of Williamlll, 1672-1688 

XIX. The King-Stadholder, 1688-1702 . 

XX. The War of the Spanish Succession and the 
Treaties of Utrecht, 1702-1715 

XXI. The Stadholderless Republic, 171 5-1740 . 

XXII. The Austrian Succession War and William 
IV, 1740-175 1 ..... 

XXIII. The Regency of Anne and of Brunswick, 
1751-1766 . . . . . . 

XXIV. William V. First Period, 1766-1780 

XXV. Stadholderate of William V (continued) , 1 780- 
1788. The English War. Patriot Movement. 
Civil War. Prussian Intervention 

XXVI. The Orange Restoration. Downfall of the 
Republic, 1 788-1 795 .... 

XXVII. The Batavian Republic, 1 795-1 806 • 

XXVIII. The Kingdom of Holland and the French 
Annexation, 1806-18 14 .... 

The Formation of the Kingdom of the 
Netherlands, 1814-1815 .... 

The Kingdom of the Netherlands — Union 
of Holland and Belgium, 181 5-1830 . 

The Belgian Revolution. The Separation of 
Holland and Belgium, 1 830-1 842 

William I abdicates. Reign of William II. 
Revision of the Constitution, 1 842-1 849 



XXIX. 

Xxxx. 

XXXI. 
XXXII. 



XI 

PAGES 

236-250 

251-257 
258-273 

274-284 

285-297 
298-305 

306-315 

316-320 
321-326 

327-336 

337-343 
344-356 

357-366 
367-375 

376-388 

389-404 
405-410 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAP. PAGES 

XXXIII. Reign of William III to the death of 
Thorbecke, 1 849-1 872 .... ,411-418 

XXXIV. The later reign of William III, and the 
Regency of Queen Emma, 1 872-1 898 . 419-425 

XXXV. The Reign of Queen Wilhelmina, 1898-1917 426-428 

Epilogue , . . . . . . . 429-432 

Bibliography ....... 433-444 

Index ........ 445-464 

MAPS 
The Netherlands, about 1550 . . . after p. 444 

The Netherlands, after 1648 .... 



>» >j 



CHAPTER I 

THE BURGUNDIAN NETHERLANDS 

The last duke of the ancient Capetian house of Burgundy dying 
in 1 361 without heirs male, the duchy fell into the possession of 
the French crown, and was by King John H bestowed upon his 
youngest son, Philip the Hardy, Duke of Touraine, as a reward, 
it is said, for the valour he displayed in the battle of Poictiers. The 
county of Burgundy, generally known as Franche-Comte, was not 
included in this donation, for it was an imperial fief; and it fell 
by inheritance in the female line to Margaret, dowager Countess 
of Flanders, widow of Count Louis H, who was killed at Crecy. 
The duchy and the county were soon, however, to be re-united, 
for Philip married Margaret, daughter and heiress of Louis de Male, 
Count of Flanders, and granddaughter of the above-named 
Margaret. In right of his wife he became, on the death of Louis 
de Male in 1384, the ruler of Flanders, Mechlin, Artois, Nevers and 
Franche-Comte. Thus the foundation was laid of a great territorial 
domain between France and Germany, and Philip the Hardy seems 
from the first to have been possessed by the ambitious design of 
working for the restoration of a powerful middle kingdom, which 
should embrace the territories assigned to Lothaire in the tripartite 
division of the Carolingian empire by the treaty of Verdun (843). For 
this he worked ceaselessly during his long reign of forty years, and 
with singular ability and courage. Before his death he had by the 
splendour of his court, his wealth and his successes in arms and 
diplomacy, come to be recognised as a sovereign of great weight 
and influence, in all but name a king. The Burgundian policy and 
tradition, which he established, found in his successors John the 
Fearless (murdered in 141 9) and John's son, Philip the Good, men 
of like character and filled with the same ambitions as himself. The 
double marriage of John with Margaret, the sister of William VI of 
Holland, and of William VI with Margaret of Burgundy, largely 
helped forward their projects of aggrandisement. Philip the Good 
was, however, a much abler ruler than his father, a far-seeing 

£. H. H. I 



2 THE BURGUNDIAN NETHERLANDS 

statesman , who pursued his plans with a patient and unscrupulous 
pertinacity, of which a conspicuous example is to be found in his 
long protracted struggle with his cousin Jacoba, the only child and 
heiress of William of Holland, whose misfortunes and courage have 
made her one of the most romantic figures of history. By a mixture 
of force and intrigue Philip, in 1433, at last compelled Jacoba to 
abdicate, and he became Count of Holland, Zeeland and Hainault. 
Nor was this by any means the end of his acquisitions. Joanna, 
Duchess of Brabant (i 355-1404) in her own right, was aunt on the 
mother's side to Margaret of Flanders, wife of Philip the Hardy. 
Dying without heirs, she bequeathed Brabant, Limburg and 
Antwerp to her great-nephew, Anthony of Burgundy, younger 
brother of John the Fearless. Anthony was killed at Agincourt and 
was succeeded first by his son John IV, the husband of Jacoba of 
Holland, and on his death without an heir in 1427, by his second 
son, Philip of St Pol, who also died childless in 1430. From him his 
cousin Philip the Good inherited the duchies of Brabant and 
Limburg and the marquisate of Antwerp. Already he had purchased 
in 1 42 1 the territory of Namur from the last Count John HI, who 
had fallen into heavy debt; and in 1443 he likev/ise purchased the 
duchy of Luxemburg from the Duchess Elizabeth of Gorlitz, who 
had married in second wedlock Anthony, Duke of Brabant, and 
afterwards John of Bavaria, but who had no children by either of her 
marriages. Thus in 1443 Philip had become by one means or 
another sovereign under various titles of the largest and most 
important part of the Netherlands, and he increased his influence 
by securing in 1456 the election of his illegitimate son David, as 
Bishop of Utrecht. Thus a great step forward had been taken for 
the restoration of the middle kingdom, which had been the dream 
of Philip the Hardy, and which now seemed to be well-nigh 
on the point of accomplishment. 
\^/ The year 1433, the date of the incorporation of Holland and 
Zeeland in the Burgundian dominion, is therefore a convenient 
starting-point for a consideration of the character of the Burgundian 
rule in the Netherlands, and of the changes which the concentra- 
tion of sovereign power in the hands of a single ruler brought into 
the relations of the various provinces with one another and into 
their internal administration. The Netherlands become now for the 
j first time something more than a geographical expression for a 



THE BURGUNDIAN NETHERLANDS 3 

number of petty feudal states, practically independent and almost 
always at strife. Henceforward there was peace; and throughout 
the whole of this northern part of his domains it was the constant 
policy of Philip gradually to abolish provincialism and to establish 
a centralised government. He was far too wise a statesman to 
attempt to abolish suddenly or arbitrarily the various rights and 
privileges, which the Flemings, Brabanters and Hollanders had 
wrung from their sovereigns, and to which they were deeply- 
attached; but, while respecting these, he endeavoured to restrict 
them as far as possible to local usage, and to centralise the general 
administration of the whole of the "pays de par de9a " (as the 
Burgundian dukes were accustomed to name their Netherland 
dominions) by the summoning of representatives of the Provincial 
States to an assembly styled the States-General, and by the creation 
of a common Court of Appeal. 

The first time the States-General were called together by Philip 
was in 1465 for the purpose of obtaining a loan for the war with 
France and the recognition of his son Charles as his successor ; and 
from this time forward at irregular intervals, but with increasing 
frequency, the practice of summoning this body went on. The 
States- General (in a sense) represented the Netherlands as a whole ; 
and it was a matter of great convenience for the sovereign, especially 
when large levies of money had to be raised, to be enabled thus to 
bring his proposals before a single assembly, instead of before a 
number of separate and independent provincial states. Neverthe- 
less, it must be borne in mind that the States- General had, as such, 
no authority to act on behalf of these several provincial states. Each 
of these sent their deputies to the General Assembly, but these 
deputies had to refer all matters to their principals before they could 
give their assent, and each body of deputies gave this assent 
separately, and without regard to the others. It was thus but a first 
provisional step towards unity of administration, but it did tend 
to promote a feeling of community of interests betvveen the 
provinces and to lead to the deputies having intercourse with one 
another and interchanging their views upon the various important 
subjects that were brought before their consideration. The period 
of disturbance and the weakening of the authority of the sovereign, 
which followed the death of Charles the Bold, led to the States- 
General obtaining a position of increased importance; and they 

I — 2 



4 THE BURGUNDIAN NETHERLANDS 

may from that time be regarded as forming a regular and necessary 
part of the machinery of government in the Burgundian Nether- 
lands. The States- General however, like the Provincial States, 
could only meet when summoned by the sovereign or his stad- 
holder ; and the causes for which they were summoned were such 
special occasions as the accession of a new sovereign or the 
appointment of a new stadholder, or more usually for sanctioning 
the requests for levies of money, which were required for the 
maintenance of splendid courts and the cost of frequent wars. 
For not only the Burgundian princes properly so-called, but even 
Charles V, had mainly to depend upon the wealth of the Nether- 
lands for their financial needs. And here a distinction must be 
drawn. For solemn occasions, such as the accession of a new 
sovereign, or the acceptance of a newly appointed governor, 
representatives of all the provinces (eventually seventeen) were 
summoned, but for ordinary meetings for the purpose of money 
levies only those of the so-called patrimonial or old Burgundian 
provinces came together. The demands for tribute on the provinces 
acquired later, such as Gelderland, Groningen, Friesland and 
Overyssel,were made to each of these provinces separately, and they 
jealously claimed their right to be thus separately dealt with. In 
the case of the other provinces the States- General, as has been 
already stated, could only grant the money after obtaining from each 
province represented, severally, its assent; and this was often not 
gained until after considerable delay and much bargaining. Once 
granted, however, the assessment regulating the quota, which the 
different provinces had to contribute, was determined on the basis 
of the so-called quotisatie or settinge drawn up in 1462 on the 
occasion of a tribute for 10 years, which Charles the Bold, as his 
father's stadholder in the ''pays de par de9a," then demanded. The 
relative wealth of the provinces may be judged from the fact that 
at this date Flanders and Brabant each paid a quarter of the whole 
levy, Holland one sixth, Zeeland one quarter of Holland's share. 

As regards the provincial government the Burgundian princes 
left undisturbed the local and historical customs and usages, and 
each province had its individual characteristics. At the head of 
each provincial government (with the exception of Brabant, at 
whose capital, Brussels, the sovereign himself or his regent resided) 
was placed a governor, with the title of Stadholder, who was the 



THE BURGUNDIAN NETHERLANDS 5 

representative of the sovereign and had large patronage. It was his 
duty to enforce edicts, preserve order, and keep a watchful eye 
over the administration of justice. He nominated to many municipal 
offices, but had little or no control over finance. The raising of 
troops and their command in the field was entrusted to a captain- 
general, who might not be the same person as the stadholder, 
though the offices were sometimes united. In the northern 
Netherlands there was but one stadholder for the three provinces 
of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, and one (at a somewhat later 
date) for Friesland, Groningen, Drente and Overyssel. 

The desire of the Burgundian princes to consolidate their 
dominions into a unified sovereignty found itself thwarted by many 
obstacles and especially by the lack of any supreme tribunal of 
appeal. It was galling to them that the Parlement of Paris should 
still exercise appellate jurisdiction in Crown-Flanders and Artois, 
and the Imperial Diet in some of the other provinces. Already in 
1428 Philip had erected the Court of Holland at the Hague to 
exercise large powers of jurisdiction and financial control in the 
provinces of Holland and Zeeland; and in 1473 Charles the Bold 
set up at Mechlin the body known as the Great Council, to act as 
a court of appeal from the provincial courts. It was to be, in the 
Netherlands, what the Parlement of Paris was in France. The Great 
Council, which had grown out of the Privy Council attached to 
the person of the prince, and which under the direction of the 
Chancellor of Burgundy administered the affairs of the govern- 
ment, more particularly justice and finance, was in 1473, as stated 
above, re-constituted as a Court of Appeal in legal matters, a new 
Chamber of Accounts being at the same time created to deal with 
finance. These efforts at centralisation of authority were un- 
doubtedly for the good of the country as a whole, but such was 
the intensity of provincial jealousy and particularism that they were 
bitterly resented and opposed. 

In order to strengthen the sovereign's influence in the towns, and 
to lessen the power of the Gilds, Philip established in Holland, and 
so far as he could elsewhere, what were called " vaste Colleges" or 
fixed committees of notables, to which were entrusted the election 
of the town officials and the municipal administration. These 
bodies were composed of a number of the richest and most 
influential burghers, who were styled the Twenty-four, the Forty, 



6 THE BURGUNDIAN NETHERLANDS 

the Sixty or the Eighty, according to the number fixed for any 
particular town. These men were appointed for life and their 
successors were chosen by co-option, so that the town corpora- 
tions gradually became closed hereditary aristocracies, and the mass 
of the citizens were deprived of all voice in their own affairs. 
The Schout or chief judge was chosen directly by the sovereign 
or his stadholder, who also nominated the Schepens or sheriffs 
from a list containing a double number, which was submitted to 
him. 

The reign of Philip the Good was marked by a great advance 
in the material prosperity of the land. Bruges, Ghent, Ypres and 
Antwerp were among the most flourishing commercial and 
industrial cities in the world, and when, through the silting up of 
the waterway, Bruges ceased to be a seaport, Antwerp rapidly rose 
to pre-eminence in her place, so that a few decades later her 
wharves were crowded with shipping, and her warehouses with 
goods from every part of Europe. In fact during the whole of the 
Burgundian period the southern Netherlands were the richest 
domain in Christendom, and continued to be so until the dis- 
astrous times of Philip H of Spain. Meanwhile Holland and Zeeland, 
though unable to compete with Brabant and Flanders in the 
populousness of their towns and the extent of their trade, were 
provinces of growing importance. Their strength lay in their 
sturdy and enterprising sea-faring population. The Hollanders had 
for many years been the rivals of the Hanse Towns for the Baltic 
trade. War broke out in 1438 and hostilities continued for three 
years with the result that the Hanse League was beaten, and 
henceforth the Hollanders were able without further let or 
hindrance more and more to become the chief carriers of the 
"Eastland" traffic. Amsterdam was already a flourishing port, 
though as yet it could make no pretension of competing with 
Antwerp. The herring fisheries were, however, the staple industry 
of Holland and Zeeland. The discovery of the art of curing herrings 
by William Beukelsz of Biervliet (died 1447) had converted a 
perishable article of food into a marketable commodity ; and not 
only did the fisheries give lucrative employment to many thousands 
of the inhabitants of these maritime provinces, but they also 
became the foundation on which was to be built their future 
commercial supremacy. 



THE BURGUNDIAN NETHERLANDS 7 

The Burgundian dukes were among the most powerful rulers of 
their time — ^the equals of kings in all but name — and they far 
surpassed all contemporary sovereigns in their lavish display and 
the splendour of their court. The festival at Bruges in 1430 in 
celebration of the marriage of Philip the Good and Isabel of 
Portugal, at which the Order of the Golden Fleece was instituted, 
excited universal wonder; while his successor, Charles the Bold, 
contrived to surpass even his father in the splendour of his espousals 
with Margaret of York in 1468, and at his conference with the 
Emperor Frederick HI at Trier in 1473. On this last occasion he 
wore a mantle encrusted all over with diamonds. 

The foundation of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1430 was 
an event of great importance, as marking a step forward on the 
part of Philip in its assumption of quasi-regal attributes. The title 
was very appropriate, for it pointed to the wool and cloth trade as 
being the source of the wealth of Flanders. The Order comprised 
thirty-one knights, chosen from the flower of the Burgundian nobles 
and the chief councillors of the sovereign. The statutes of the Order 
set forth in detail the privileges of the members, and their duties 
and obligations to their prince. They had a prescriptive claim to be 
consulted on all matters of importance, to be selected for the chief 
government posts, and to serve on military councils. The knights 
were exempt from the jurisdiction of all courts, save that of their 
own chapter. 

Philip died in 1467 and was succeeded by his son, Charles, who 
had already exercised for some years authority in the Netherlands 
as his father's deputy. Charles, as his surname le Temeraire 
witnesses, was a man of impulsive and autocratic temperament, 
but at the same time a hard worker, a great organiser, and a brilliant 
soldier. Consumed with ambition to realise that restoration of a 
great middle Lotharingian kingdom stretching from the North 
Sea to the Mediterranean, for which his father had been working 
during his long and successful reign, he threw himself with almost 
passionate energy into the accomplishment of his task. With this 
object he was the first sovereign to depart from feudal usages and 
to maintain a standing army. He appeared at one time to be on the 
point of accomplishing his aim. Lorraine, which divided his southern 
from his northern possessions, was for a short time in his possession. 
Intervening in Gelderland between the Duke Arnold of Egmont 



8 THE BURGUNDIAN NETHERLANDS 

and his son Adolf, he took the latter prisoner and obtained the 
duchy in pledge from the former. Uprisings in the Flemish towns 
against heavy taxation and arbitrary rule were put down with a 
strong hand. In September, 1474, the duke, accompanied by a 
splendid suite, met the emperor Frederick HI at Trier to receive 
the coveted crown from the imperial hands. It was arranged that 
Charles' only daughter and heiress should be betrothed to 
Maximilian of Austria, the emperor's eldest son, and the very day 
and hour for the coronation were fixed. But the Burgundian had 
an enemy in Louis XI of France, who was as prudent and far-seeing 
as his rival was rash and impetuous, and who was far more than his 
match in political craft and cunning. French secret agents stirred 
up Frederick's suspicions against Charles' designs, and the 
emperor suddenly left Trier, where he had felt humiliated by the 
splendour of his powerful vassal. 

The duke was furious at his disappointment, but was only the 
more obstinately bent on carrying out his plans. But Louis had 
been meanwhile forming a strong league (League of Constance, 
March 1474) of various states threatened by Charles' ambitious 
projects. Duke Sigismund of Austria, Baden, Basel, Elsass, and 
the Swiss Cantons united under the leadership of France to resist 
them. Charles led an army of 60,000 men to aid the Archbishop 
of Cologne against his subjects, but spent eleven months in a 
fruitless attempt to take a small fortified town, Neuss, in which a 
considerable portion of his army perished. He was compelled to 
raise large sums of money from his unwilling subjects in the 
Netherlands to repair his losses, and in 1475 he attacked Duke Rene 
of Lorraine, captured Nancy and conquered the duchy, which had 
hitherto separated his Netherland from his French possessions. It 
was the first step in the accomplishment of his scheme for the 
restoration of the Lotharingian kingdom. In Elsass, however, the 
populace had risen in insurrection against the tyranny of the 
Burgundian governor, Peter van Hagenbach, and had tried and 
executed him. Finding that the Swiss had aided the rebels, Charles 
now, without waiting to consolidate his conquest of Lorraine, 
determined to lead his army into Switzerland. At the head of a 
splendidly equipped force he encountered the Confederates near 
Granson (March 2, 1476) and was utterly routed, his own seal 
and order of the Golden Fleece, with vast booty, falling into the 



THE BURGUNDIAN NETHERLANDS 9 

hands of the victors. A few months later, having recruited and re- 
organised his beaten army, he again led them against the Swiss. 
The encounter took place (June 21, 1476) at Morat and once more 
the chivalry of Burgundy suffered complete defeat. Charles fled 
from the field, half insane with rage and disappointment, when 
the news that Duke Rene had reconquered Lorraine roused him 
from his torpor. He hastily gathered together a fresh army and 
laid siege to Nancy. But in siege operations he had no skill, and 
in the depth of winter (January 5, 1477) he was attacked by the 
Swiss and Lorrainers outside the walls of the town. A panic seized 
the Burgundians; Charles in person in vain strove to stem their 
flight, and he perished by an unknown hand. His body was found 
later, stripped naked, lying frozen in a pool. 

Charles left an only child, Mary, not yet twenty years of age. 
Mary foimd herself in a most difficult and trying situation. Louis XI, 
the hereditary enemy of her house, at once took possession of the 
duchy of Burgundy, which by failure of heirs-male had reverted 
to its liege-lord. The sovereignty of the county of Burgundy 
(Franche-Comte), being an imperial fief descending in the female 
line, she retained ; but, before her authority had been established, 
Louis had succeeded in persuading the states of the county to 
place themselves under a French protectorate. French armies 
overran Artois, Hainault and Picardy, and were threatening 
Flanders, where there was in every cit}^ a party of French sympa- 
thisers. Gelderland welcomed the exiled duke, Adolf, as their 
sovereign. Everywhere throughout the provinces the despotic rule 
of Duke Charles and his heavy exactions had aroused seething 
discontent. Mary was virtually a prisoner in the hands of her 
Flemish subjects ; and, before they consented to support her cause, 
there was a universal demand for a redress of grievances. But Mary 
showed herself possessed of courage and statesmanship beyond her 
years, and she had at this critical moment in her step-mother, 
Margaret of York, an experienced and capable adviser at her side. 
A meeting of the States- General was at once summoned to Ghent. 
It met on February 3, 1477, Mary's 20th birthday. Representatives 
came from Flanders, Brabant, Artois and Namur, in the southern, 
and from Holland and Zeeland in the northern Netherlands. Mary 
saw there was no course open to her but to accede to their demands. 
Only eight days after the Assembly met, the charter of Netherland 



10 THE BURGUNDIAN NETHERLANDS 

liberties, called The Great Privilege, was agreed to and signed. 
By this Act all previous ordinances conflicting with ancient 
privileges were abolished. The newly-established Court of Appeal 
at Mechlin was replaced by a Great Council of twenty-four 
members chosen by the sovereign from the various states, which 
should advise and assist in the administration of government. Mary 
undertook not to marry or to declare war without the assent of the 
States- General. The States-General and the Provincial States were 
to meet as often as they wished, without the summons of the 
sovereign. All officials were to be native-born ; no Netherlander was 
to be tried by foreign judges; there were to be no forced loans, 
no alterations in the coinage. All edicts or ordinances infringing 
provincial rights were to be ipso facto null and void. By placing 
her seal to this document Mary virtually abdicated the absolute 
sovereign power which had been exercised by her predecessors, 
and undid at a stroke the results of their really statesmanlike efforts 
to create out of a number of semi-autonomous provinces a unified 
State. Many of their acts and methods had been harsh and 
autocratic, especially those of Charles the Bold, but who can doubt 
that on the whole their policy was wise and salutary ? In Holland 
and Zeeland a Council was erected consisting of a Stadholder and 
eight councillors (six Hollanders and two Zeelanders) of whom two 
were to be nobles, the others jurists. Wolferd van Borselen, lord 
of Veere, was appointed Stadholder. 

The Great Privilege granted, the States willingly raised a force 
of 34,000 men to resist the French invasion, and adequate means 
for carrying on the war. But the troubles of the youthful Mary 
were not yet over. The hand of the heiress of so many rich domains 
was eagerly sought for (i) by Louis of France for the dauphin, 
a youth of 17 years ; (2) by Maximilian of Austria to whom she had 
been promised in marriage ; (3) by Adolf, Duke of Gelderland, who 
was favoured by the States-General. Adolf, however, was killed 
in battle. In Flanders there was a party who favoured the French 
and actually engaged in intrigues with Louis, but the mass of the 
people were intensely averse to French domination. To such an 
extent was this the case that two influential officials, the lords 
Hugonet and Humbercourt, on whom suspicion fell of treacherous 
correspondence with the French king, were seized, tried by a 
special tribunal, and, despite the tears and entreaties of the duchess, 



THE BURGUNDIAN NETHERLANDS ii 

were condemned and beheaded in the market-place of Ghent. 
Maximilian became therefore the accepted suitor ; and on August 
19, 1477, his marriage with Mary took place at Bruges. This 
marriage was to have momentous consequences, not only for the 
Netherlands, but for Europe. The union was a happy one, but, 
unfortunately, of brief duration. On March 29, 1482, Mary died 
from the effects of a fall from her horse, leaving two children, 
Philip and Margaret. 



CHAPTER II 

HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 

Maximilian, on the death of Mary, found himself in a very 
difficult position. The archduke was a man of high-soaring ideas, 
chivalrous, brave even to the point of audacity, full of expedients 
and never daunted by failure, but he was deficient in stability of 
character, and always hampered throughout his life by lack of funds. 
He had in 1477 set himself to the task of defending Flanders and 
the southern provinces of the Netherlands against French attack, 
and not without considerable success. In 1482, as guardian of his 
four-year old son Philip, the heir to the domains of the house of 
Burgundy, he became regent of the Netherlands. His authority 
however was little recognised. Gelderland and Utrecht fell away 
altogether. Liege acknowledged William de la Marck as its ruler. 
Holland and Zeeland were torn by contending factions. Flanders, 
the centre of the Burgundian power, was specially hostile to its 
new governor. The burghers of Ghent refused to surrender to him 
his children, Philip and Margaret, who were held as hostages to 
secure themselves against any attempted infringement of their 
liberties. The Flemings even entered into negotiations with 
Louis XI ; and the archduke found himself compelled to sign a 
treaty with France (December 23, 1482), one of the conditions 
being the betrothal of his infant daughter to the dauphin, 
Maximilian, however, found that for a time he must leave Flanders 
to put down the rising of the Hook faction in Holland, who, led by 
Frans van Brederode, and in alliance with the anti-Burgundian 
party in Utrecht, had made themselves masters of Ley den. Beaten 
in a bloody fight by the regent, Brederode nevertheless managed 
to seize Sluis and Rotterdam; and from these ports he and his 
daring companion-in-arms, Ian van Naaldwijk, carried on a 
guerrilla warfare for some years. Brederode was killed in a fight 
at Brouwershaven (1490), but Sluis still held out and was not taken 
till two years later. 

Meanwhile Maximilian had to undertake a campaign against the 



HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 13 

Flemings, who were again in arms at the instigation of the turbulent 
burghers of Ghent and Bruges. Entering the province at the head 
of a large force he compelled the rebel towns to submit and U^/ 
obtained possession of the person of his son Philip (July, 1485). 
Elected in the following year King of the Romans, Maximilian left 
the Netherlands to be crowned at Aachen (April, i486). A war with 
France called him back, in the course of which he suffered a severe 
defeat at Bethune. At the beginning of 1488 Ghent and Bruges 
once more rebelled ; and the Roman king, enticed to enter Bruges, 
was there seized and compelled to see his friends executed in the 
market-place beneath his prison window. For seven months he 
was held a prisoner ; nor was he released until he had sworn to 
surrender his powers, as regent, to a council of Flemings and to 
withdraw all his foreign troops from the Netherlands. He was 
forced to give hostages as a pledge of his good faith, among 
them his general, Philip of Cleef , who presently joined his captors. 

Maximilian, on arriving at the camp of the Emperor Frederick HI, 
who had gathered together an army to release his imprisoned son, 
was persuaded to break an oath given under duress. He advanced 
therefore at the head of his German mercenaries into Flanders, but 
was able to achieve little success against the Flemings, who found 
in Philip of Cleef an able commander. Despairing of success, he 
now determined to retire into Germany, leaving Duke Albert of 
Saxe-Meissen, a capable and tried soldier of fortune, as general- 
in-chief of his forces and Stadholder of the Netherlands. With the 
coming of Duke Albert order was at length to be restored, though 
not without a severe struggle. 

Slowly but surely Duke Albert took town after town and re- 
duced province after province into submission. The Hook party in 
Holland and Zeeland, and their anti-Burgundian allies in Utrecht, 
and Robert de la Marck in Liege, in turn felt the force of his 
arm. An insurrection of the peasants in West Friesland and Ken- 
nemerland — the "Bread and Cheese Folk," as they were called — 
was easily put down. Philip of Cleef with his Flemings was unable 
to make head against him ; and, with the fall of Ghent and Sluis in the 
summer of 1492, the duke was able to announce to Maximilian that 
the Netherlands, except Gelderland, were pacified. The treaty of 
Senlis in 1493 ended the war with France. In the following year, 
after his accession to the imperial throne, Maximilian retired to his 



14 HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 

ancestral dominions in Germany, and his sonj.Philip the Fair, took 
in his hands the reins of government. The young sovereign, who 
was a Netherlander by birth and had spent all his life in the country, 
was more popular than his father ; and his succession to the larger 
part of the Burgundian inheritance was not disputed. He received 
the homage of Zeeland at Roemerswaal, of Holland at Geertruiden- 
burg, and seized the occasion to announce the abrogation of the 
Great Privilege, and at the same time restored the Grand Council 
at Mechlin. 

In Utrecht the authority of Bishop David of Burgundy was now 
firmly re-established ; and on his death, Philip of Baden, an obsequious 
adherent of the house of Austria, was elected. These results of the 
pacification carried out so successfully by Duke Albert had, 
however, left Maximilian and Philip deeply in debt to the Saxon ; 
and there was no money wherewith to meet the claim, which 
amounted to 300,000 guilders. After many negotiations extending 
over several years, compensation was found for Albert in Friesland. 
That unhappy province and the adjoining territory of Groningen 
had for a long time been torn by internal dissensions between the 
two parties, the Schieringers and the Vetkoopers^ who were the 
counterparts of the Hooks and Cods of Holland. The Schieringers 
called in the aid of the Saxon duke, who brought the land into 
subjection. Maximilian now recognised Albert as hereditary 
Podesta or governor of Friesland on condition that the House of 
Austria reserved the right of redeeming the territory for 100,000 
guilders; and Philip acquiesced in the bargain by which Frisian 
freedom was sold in exchange for the cancelling of a debt. The 
struggle with Charles of Egmont in Gelderland was not so easily 
terminated. Not till 1505 was Philip able to overcome this crafty 
and skilful adversary. Charles was compelled to do homage and to 
accompany Philip to Brussels (October, 1505). It was, however, but 
a brief submission. Charles made his escape once more into 
Gelderland and renewed the war of independence. 

Before these events had taken place, the marriage of Philip with 
Juana, the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabel of Castile, 
had brought about a complete change in his fortunes. Maximilian, 
always full of ambitious projects for the aggrandisement of his 
House, had planned with Ferdinand of Aragon a double marriage 
between their families, prompted by a common hatred and fear of 



HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 15 

the growing power of France. The Archduke Philip was to wed 
the Infanta Juana, the second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabel ; 
the Infante Juan, the heir to the thrones of Aragon and Castile, 
Philip's sister, Margaret. Margaret had in 1483, aged then three 
years, been betrothed to the Dauphin Charles, aged twelve, and 
she was brought up at the French Court, and after the death of 
Louis XI (August 30, 1483) had borne the title of Queen and had 
lived at Amboise with other children of the French royal house, 
under the care of the Regent, Anne de Beaujeu. The marriage, 
however, of Charles VIII and Margaret was never to be consum- 
mated. In August, 1488, the male line of the Dukes of Brittany 
became extinct; and the hand of the heiress, Anne of Brittany, a 
girl of twelve, attracted many suitors. It was clearly a matter of 
supreme importance to the King of France that this important 
territory should not pass by marriage into the hands of an enemy. 
The Bretons, on the other hand, clung to their independence and 
dreaded absorption in the unifying French state. After many 
intrigues her council advised the young duchess to accept Maxi- 
milian as her husband, and she was married to him by proxy in 
March, 1490. Charles VIII immediately entered Brittany at the 
head of a strong force and, despite a fierce and prolonged resistance, 
conquered the country, and gained possession of Anne's person 
(August, 149 1 ). The temptation was too strong to be resisted. 
Margaret, after residing in France as his affianced wife for eight 
years, was repudiated and finally, two years later, sent back to 
the Netherlands, while Anne was compelled to break off her 
marriage with Margaret's father, and became Charles' queen. This 
double slight was never forgiven either by Maximilian or by 
Margaret, and was the direct cause of the negotiations for the 
double Spanish marriage, which, though delayed by the suspicious 
caution of the two chief negotiators, Ferdinand and Maximilian, 
was at length arranged. In August, 1496, an imposing fleet 
conveyed the Infanta Juana to Antwerp and she was married to 
Philip at Lille. In the following April Margaret and Don Juan 
were wedded in the cathedral of Burgos. The union was followed 
by a series of catastrophes in the Spanish royal family. While on 
his way with his wife to attend the marriage of his older sister 
Isabel with the King of Portugal, Juan caught a malignant fever 
and expired at Salamanca in October, 1497. 



i6 HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 

The newly-married Queen of Portugal now became the heiress 
to the crowns of Aragon and Castile, but she died a year later and 
shortly afterwards her infant son. The succession therefore passed 
to the younger sister, Juana; and Philip the Fair, the heir of the 
House of Austria and already through his mother the ruler of the 
rich Burgundian domain, became through his wife the prospective 
sovereign of the Spanish kingdoms of Ferdinand and Isabel. 
Fortune seemed to have reserved all her smiles for the young 
prince, when on February 24, 1500, a son was born to him at Ghent, 
who received the name Charles. But dark days were soon to follow. 
Philip was pleasure-loving and dissolute, and he showed little 
affection for his wife, who had already begun to exhibit symptoms 
of that weakness of mind which was before long to develop into 
insanity. However in 1501, they journeyed together to Spain, in 
order to secure Juana's rights to the Castilian succession and also 
to that of Aragon should King Ferdinand die without an heir-male. 
In November, 1504, Isabel the Catholic had died; and Philip 
and his consort at once assumed the titles of King and Queen of 
Castile, in spite of the opposition of Ferdinand, who claimed the 
right of regency during his life-time. Both parties were anxious 
to obtain the support of Henry VII. Already since the accession of 
Philip the commercial relations between England and the Nether- 
lands had been placed on what proved to be a permanently friendly 
basis by the treaty known as the Magnus Inter cur sus of 1496. 
Flanders and Brabant were dependent upon the supply of English 
wool for their staple industries, Holland and Zeeland for that 
freedom of fishery on which a large part of their population was 
employed and subsisted. In reprisals for the support formerly given 
by the Burgundian government to the house of York, Henry had 
forbidden the exportation of wool and of cloth to the Netherlands, 
had removed the staple from Bruges to Calais, and had withdrawn 
the fishing rights enjoyed by the Hollanders since the reign of 
Edward I. But this state of commercial war was ruinous to both 
countries; and, on condition that Philip henceforth undertook not 
to allow any enemies of the English government to reside in his 
dominions, a good understanding was reached, and the Magnus 
Intercursus, which re-established something like freedom of trade 
between the countries, was duly signed in February, 1496. The 
treaty was solemnly renewed in 1501, but shortly afterwards fresh 



HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 17 

difficulties arose concerning Yorkist refugees, and a stoppage of 
trade was once more threatened. At this juncture a storm drove 
Philip and Juana, who had set sail in January, 1506, for Spain, to 
take refuge in an English harbour. For three months they were 
hospitably entertained by Henry, but he did not fail to take 
advantage of the situation to negotiate three treaties with his 
unwilling guest : (i) a treaty of alliance, (2) a treaty of marriage with 
Philip's sister, the Archduchess Margaret, already at the age of 25 
a widow for the second time, (3) a revision of the treaty of 
commerce of 1496, named from its unfavourable conditions, Malus 
Intercursus. The marriage treaty came to nothing through the 
absolute refusal of Margaret to accept the hand of the English king. 

Philip and Juana left England for Spain, April 23, to assume the 
government of the three kingdoms, Castile, Leon and Granada, 
which Juana had inherited from her mother. Owing to his wife's 
mental incapacity Philip in her name exercised all the powers of 
sovereignty, but his reign was very short, for he was suddenly taken 
ill and died at Burgos, September 25, 1506. His hapless wife, after 
the birth of a posthumous child, sank into a state of hopeless 
insanity and passed the rest of her long life in confinement. Charles, 
the heir to so vast an inheritance, was but six years old. The 
representatives of the provinces, assembled at Mechlin (October 18), 
offered the regency of the Burgundian dominions to the Emperor 
Maximilian; he in his turn nominated his daughter, Margaret, 
to be regent in his place and guardian of his grandson during 
Charles' minority, and she with the assent of the States- General 
took the oath on her installation as Mambour or Governor-General 
of the Netherlands, March, 1507. Margaret was but 27 years of 
age, and for twenty-four years she continued to administer the 
affairs of the Netherlands with singular discretion, firmness and 
statesmanlike ability. The superintendence and training of the 
young archduke could have been placed in no better hands. 
Charles, who with his three sisters lived with his aunt at Mechlin, 
was thus both by birth and education a Netherlander. 

One of the first acts of Margaret was a refusal to ratify the 
Malus Intercursus and the revival of the Magnus Intercursus of 
1496. This important commercial treaty from that time forward 
continued in force for more than a century. The great difficulty 
that Margaret encountered in her government was the lack of 

E.H. H. 2 



i8 HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 

adequate financial resources. The extensive privileges accorded to 
the various provinces and their mutual jealousies and diverse 
interests made the task of levying taxes arduous and often fruitless. 
Margaret found that the granting of supplies, even for so necessary 
a purpose as the raising of troops to resist the raids of Charles of 
Gelderland, aided by the French king, into Utrecht and Holland, 
was refused. She fortunately possessed in a high degree those qualities 
of persuasive address and sound judgment, which gave to her a 
foremost place among the diplomatists and rulers of her time. Such 
was the confidence that her brilliant abilities inspired that she was 
deputed both by the Emperor Maximilian and by Ferdinand of 
Aragon to be their plenipotentiary at the Peace Congress that 
assembled at Cambray in November, 1508. Chiefly through her 
exertions the negotiations had a speedy and successful issue, and 
the famous treaty known as the League of Cambray was signed on 
December 10. By this treaty many of the disputes concerning the 
rights and prerogatives of the French crown in the Burgundian 
Netherlands were amicably settled ; and it was arranged that Charles 
of Egmont should be provisionally recognised as Duke of Gelder- 
land on condition that he should give up the towns in Holland that 
he had captured and withdraw his troops within his own borders. 
The extant correspondence betv\^een Maximilian and Margaret, 
which is of the most confidential character, on matters of high 
policy, is a proof of the high opinion the emperor entertained of 
his daughter's intelligence and capacity. In nothing was his 
confidence more justified than in the assiduous care and interest 
that the regent took in the education of the Archduke Charles 
and his three sisters, who had been placed in her charge. In 15 15 
Charles, on entering his sixteenth year, was declared by Maximilian 
to be of age ; Margaret accordingly handed over to him the reins 
of government and withdrew for the time into private life. Her 
retirement was not, however, to be of long continuance. On 
January 23, 15 16, King Ferdinand of Aragon died, and Charles, 
who now became King of Castile and of Aragon, was obliged to 
leave the Netherlands to take possession of his Spanish dominions. 
Before sailing he reinstated his aunt as governess, and appointed 
a council to assist her. This post she continued to hold till the day 
of her death, for Charles was never again able to take up his 
permanent residence in the Netherlands. During the first years 



HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 19 

after his accession to the thrones of Ferdinand and Isabel he was 
much occupied with Spanish affairs ; and the death of Maximilian, 
January 12, 15 19, opened out to him a still wider field of ambition 
and activity. On June 28 Charles was elected emperor, a result 
which he owed in no small degree to the diplomatic skill and 
activity of Margaret. Just a year later the emperor visited the 
Netherlands, where Charles of Gelderland was again giving trouble, 
and his presence was required both for the purpose of dealing with 
the affairs of the provinces and also for securing a grant of supply, 
for he was sorely in need of funds. Margaret had at his request 
summoned the States- General to meet at Brussels, where Charles 
personally addressed them, and explained at some length the reasons 
which led him to ask his loyal and devoted Nether land subjects 
for their aid on his election to the imperial dignity. The States- 
General on this, as on other occasions, showed no niggardliness in 
responding to the request of a sovereign who, though almost 
always absent, appealed to their patriotism as a born Netherlander, 
who had been brought up in their midst and spoke their tongue. 
Charles was crowned at Aachen, October 23, 1520, and some three 
months later presided at the famous diet of Worms, where he met 
Martin Luther face to face. Before starting on his momentous 
journey he again appointed Margaret regent, and gave to her 
Council, which he nominated, large powers; the Council of 
Mechlin, the Court of Holland and other provincial tribunals 
being subjected to its superior authority and jurisdiction. By this 
action the privileges of the provinces were infringed, but Charles 
was resolute in carrying out the centralising policy of his ancestors, 
the Dukes of Burgundy, and he had the power to enforce his will 
in spite of the protests that were raised. 

And so under the wise and conciliatory but firm administration 
of Margaret during a decade of almost continuous religious and 
international strife — a decade marked by such great events as the 
rapid growth of the Reformation in Germany, the defeat and 
capture of Francis I at Pavia, the sack of Rome by the troops of 
Bourbon and the victorious advance of the Turks in Hungary and 
along the eastern frontier of the empire — the Nether land provinces 
remained at peace, save for the restless intrigues of Charles of 
Egmont in Gelderland, and prospered. Their wealth furnished 
indeed no small portion of the funds which enabled Charles to face 

2 — 2 



20 HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 

successfully so many adversaries and to humble the power of 
France. The last important act of Margaret, like her first, was 
connected with the town of Cambray. In this town, as the repre- 
sentative and plenipotentiary of her nephew the emperor, she met, 
July, 1529, Louise of Savoy, who had been granted similar powers 
by her son Francis I, to negotiate a treaty of peace. The two 
princesses proved worthy of the trust that had been placed in them, 
and a general treaty of peace, often spoken of as "the Ladies* 
Peace," was speedily drawn up and ratified. The conditions were 
highly advantageous to the interests of Spain and the Netherlands. 
On November 30 of the following year Margaret died, as the result 
of a slight accident to her foot which the medical science of the day 
did not know how to treat properly, in the 50th year of her age 
and the 24th of her regency. 

Charles, who had a few months previously reached the zenith 
of his power by being crowned with the iron crown of Lombardy 
and with the imperial crown at the hands of Pope Clement VII 
at Bologna (February 22 and 24, 1530), appointed as governess in 
Margaret's place his sister Mary, the widowed queen of Louis, 
King of Hungary, who had been slain by the Turks at the battle 
of Mohacs, August 29, 1526. 

Mary, who had passed her early life in the Netherlands under 
the care of her aunt Margaret, proved herself in every way her 
worthy successor. She possessed, like Margaret, a strong character, 
statesmanlike qualities and singular capacity in the administration 
of affairs. She filled the difficult post of regent for the whole period 
/of twenty-four years between the death of Margaret and the 
/abdication of Charles V in 1555. It was fortunate indeed for that 
f great sovereign that these two eminent women of his house should, 
each in turn for one half of his long reign, have so admirably 
conducted the government of this important portion of his 
1 dominions, as to leave him free for the carrying out of his far- 
reaching political projects and constant military campaigns in other 
lands. Two years after Mary entered upon her regency Charles 
appointed three advisory and administrative bodies — the Council 
of State, the Council of Finance and the Privy Council — to assist 
her in the government. The Council of State dealt with questions 
of external and internal policy and with the appointment of officials ; 
the Council of Finance with the care of the revenue and private 



HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 21 

domains of the sovereign ; to the Privy Council were entrusted the 
publication of edicts and "placards," and the care of justice and 
police. 

When Charles succeeded Philip the Fair only a portion of the 
Netherlands was subject to his sway. With steady persistence he set 
himself to the task of bringing all the seventeen provinces under 
one sovereign. In 15 15 George of Saxe-Meissen sold to him his 
rights over Friesland. Henry of Bavaria, who in opposition to his 
wishes had been elected Bishop of Utrecht, was compelled 
(1528) to cede to him the temporalities of the see, retaining the 
spiritual office only. Charles thus added the Upper and Lower 
Sticht — Utrecht and Overyssel — to his dominions. He made 
himself (1536) master of Groningen and Drente after a long and 
obstinate struggle with Charles of Gelderland, and seven years later 
he forced Charles' successor, William of Jiilich and Cleves, to 
renounce in his favour his claims to Gelderland and Zutphen. 
During the reign of Charles V the States-General were summoned 
many times, chiefly for the purpose of voting subsidies, but it was 
only on special and solemn occasions, that the representatives of all 
the seventeen provinces were present, as for instance when Philip 
received their homage in 1549 and when Charles V announced his 
abdication in 1555. The names of the seventeen provinces sum- 
moned on these occasions were Brabant, Limburg, Luxemburg, 
Gelderland, Flanders, Holland, Zeeland, Artois, Hainault, Namur, 
Lille with Douay and Orchies, Tournay and district, Mechlin, 
Friesland, Utrecht, Overyssel with Drente and Groningen. The 
bishopric of Liege, though nominally independent, was under 
the strict control of the government at Brussels. 

The relations of Charles' Burgundian domains to the empire 
were a matter of no small moment, and he was able to regulate 
them in a manner satisfactory to himself. Several times during his 
reign tentative attempts were made to define those relations, which 
were of a very loose kind. The fact that the head of the house of 
Habsburg was himself emperor had not made him any less 
determined than the Burgundian sovereigns, his ancestors, to assert 
for his Netherland territories a virtual independence of imperial 
control or obligation. The various states of which the Netherlands 
were composed were as much opposed as the central government 
at Brussels to any recognition of the claims of the empire ; and both 



22 HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 

Margaret of Austria and Mary of Hungary ventured to refuse to 
send representatives to the imperial diets, even when requested to 
do so by the emperor. At last in 1548, when all the Netherland 
provinces had been brought under the direct dominion or control 
of one sovereign prince, a convention was drawn up at the diet of 
Augsburg, chiefly by the exertions of the Regent Mary and her 
tried councillors Viglius and Granvelle, by which the unity of the 
Netherland territories was recognised and they were freed from 
imperial jurisdiction. Nominally, they formed a circle of the empire, 
— the Burgundian circle — and representatives of the circle were 
supposed to appear at the diets and to bear a certain share of 
imperial taxation in return for the right to the protection of the 
empire against attacks by France. As a matter of fact, no repre- 
sentatives were ever sent and no subsidy was paid, nor was the 
protection of the empire ever sought or given. 

This convention, which in reality severed the shadowy links 
which had hitherto bound the Netherlands to the empire, received 
the sanction of the States- General in October, 1548; and it was 
^followed by the issuing, with the consent of the Estates of the 
various provinces, of a "Pragmatic Sanction" by which the 
inherited right of succession to the sovereignty in each and every 
province was settled upon the male and female line of Charles' 
descendants, notwithstanding the existence of ancient provincial 
privileges to the contrary. In 1549 the emperor's only son Philip 
was acknowledged by all the Estates as their future sovereign, and 
made a journey through the land to receive homage. 

The doctrines of the Reformation had early obtained a footing 
in various parts of the Netherlands. At first it was the teaching of 
Luther and of Zwingli which gained adherents. Somewhat later 
the Anabaptist movement made great headway in Holland and 
Friesland, especially in Amsterdam. The chief leaders of the Ana- 
baptists were natives of Holland, including the famous or infamous 
John of Ley den, who with some thousands of these fanatical 
sectaries perished at Miinster in 1535. Between 1537 and 1543 a 
more moderate form of Anabaptist teaching made rapid progress 
through the preaching of a certain Menno Simonszoon. The 
followers of this man were called Mennonites. Meanwhile Luther- 
anism and Zwinglianism were in many parts of the country being 
supplanted by the sterner doctrines of Calvin. All these movements 



HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 23 

were viewed by the emperor with growing anxiety and detesta- 
tion. Whatever compromises with the Reformation he might be 
compelled to make m Germany, he was determined to extirpate 
heresy from his hereditary dominions. He issued a strong placard 
soon after the diet of Worms in 1521 condemning Luther and his 
opinions and forbidding the printing or sale of any of the reformer's 
writings ; and between that date and 1555 a dozen other edicts and 
placards were issued of increasing stringency. The most severe was 
the so-called ''blood-placard" of 1550. This enacted the sentence 
of death against all convicted of heresy — the men to be executed 
with the sword and the women buried alive ; in cases of obstinacy 
both men and women were to be burnt. Terribly harsh as were 
these edicts, it is doubtful whether the number of those who 
suffered the extreme penalty has not been greatly exaggerated by 
partisan writers. Of the thousands who perished, by far the greater 
part were Anabaptists ; and these met their fate rather as enemies 
of the state and of society, than as heretics. They were political 
as well as religious anarchists. 

In the time of Charles the trade and industries of the Netherlands 
were in a highly prosperous state. The Burgundian provinces under 
the wise administrations of Margaret and Mary, and protected by 
the strong arm of the emperor from foreign attack, were at this 
period by far the richest state in Europe and the financial mainstay 
of the Habsburg power. Bruges, however, had now ceased to be the 
central market and exchange of Europe, owing to the silting up of 
the river Zwijn. It was no longer a port, and its place had been 
taken by Antwerp. At the close of the reign of Charles, Antwerp, 
with its magnificent harbour on the Scheldt, had become the 
"counting-house" of the nations, the greatest port and the 
wealthiest and most luxurious city in the world. Agents of the 
principal bankers and merchants of every country had their offices 
within its walls. It has been estimated that, inclusive of the many 
foreigners who made the town their temporary abode, the popula- 
tion of Antwerp in 1560 was about 150,000. Five hundred vessels 
sailed in and out of her harbour daily, and five times that number 
were to be seen thronging her wharves at the same time. 

To the north of the Scheldt the condition of things was not less 
satisfactory than in the south, particularly in Holland. The 
commercial prosperity of Holland was in most respects different 



24 HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 

in kind from that of Flanders and Brabant, and during the period 
with which we are deaUng had been making rapid advances, but 
on independent lines. A manufactory of the coarser kinds of 
cloth, established at Ley den, had indeed for a time met with a 
considerable measure of success, but had fallen into decline in the 
time of Mary of Hungary. The nature of his country led the 
Hollander to be either a sailor or a dairy-farmer, not an artisan or 
operative. Akin though he was in race to the Fleming and the 
Brabanter, his instincts led him by the force of circumstances to 
turn his energies in other directions. Subsequent history has but 
emphasised the fact — which from the fourteenth century onwards 
is clearly evident — that the people who inhabited the low-lying sea- 
girt lands of dyke, canal and polder in Holland and Zeeland were 
distinct in character and temper from the citizens of Bruges, 
Ghent, Ypres, Brussels or Mechlin, who were essentially landsmen 
and artisans. Ever since the discovery of the art of curing herrings 
(ascribed to William Beukelsz), the herring fishery had acquired 
a great importance to the Hollanders and Zeelanders, and formed 
the chief livelihood of a large part of the entire population of those 
provinces ; and many thousands, who did not themselves sail in the 
fishing fleets, found employment in the ship- and boat-building 
wharves and in the making of sails, cordage, nets and other tackle. 
It was in this hazardous occupation that the hardy race of skilled 
and seasoned seamen, who were destined to play so decisive a part 
in the coming wars of independence, had their early training. The 
herring harvest, through the careful and scientific methods that 
were employed in curing the fish and packing them in barrels, 
became a durable and much sought for article of commerce. A small 
portion of the catch served as a supply of food for home con- 
sumption, the great bulk in its thousands of barrels was a marketable 
commodity, and the distribution of the cured herring to distant 
ports became a lucrative business. It had two important con- 
sequences, the formation of a Dutch Mercantile Marine, and the 
growth of Amsterdam, which from small beginnings had in the 
middle of the sixteenth century become a town with 40,000 in- 
habitants and a port second only in importance in the Netherlands 
to Antwerp. From its harbour at the confluence of the estuary of 
the Y with the Zuyder Zee ships owned and manned by Hollanders 
sailed along the coasts of France and Spain to bring home the salt 



HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 25 

for curing purposes and with it wines and other southern products, 
while year by year a still larger and increasing number entered the 
Baltic. In those eastern waters they competed with the German 
Hanseatic cities, with whom they had many acrimonious disputes, 
and with such success that the Hollanders gradually monopolised 
the traffic in grain, hemp and other " Eastland " commodities 
and became practically the freight-carriers of the Baltic. And be 
it remembered that they were able to achieve this because many 
of the North-Netherland towns were themselves members of the 
Hanse League, and possessed therefore the same rights and 
privileges commercially as their rivals, Hamburg, Liibeck or 
Danzig. The great industrial cities of Flanders and Brabant, on the 
other hand, not being members of the League nor having any 
mercantile marine of their own, were content to transact business 
with the foreign agents of the Hanse towns, who had their counting- 
houses at Antwerp. It will thus be seen that in the middle of the 
sixteenth century the trade of the northern provinces, though as yet 
not to be compared in volume to that of the Flemings and Walloons, 
had before it an opening field for enterprise and energy rich in 
possibilities and promise for the future. 

Such was the state of affairs political, religious and economical 
when in the year 1555 the Emperor Charles V, prematurely aged 
by the heavy burden of forty years of world-wide sovereignty, 
worn out by constant campaigns and weary of the cares of state, 
announced his intention of abdicating and retiring into a monastery. 
On October 25, 1555, the act of abdication was solemnly and with 
impressive ceremonial carried out in the presence of the repre- 
sentatives of the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands specially 
summoned to meet their sovereign for the last time in the Great 
Hall of the Palace at Brussels. Charles took an affecting farewell 
of his Netherland subjects and concluded by asking them to 
exhibit the same regard and loyalty to his son Philip as they had 
always displayed to himself. Much feeling was shown, for Charles, 
despite the many and varied calls and duties which had prevented 
him from residing for any length of time in the Netherlands, had 
always been at pains to manifest a special interest in the country 
of his birth. The Netherlands were to him throughout life his 
homeland and its people looked upon him as a fellow-countryman, 
and not even the constant demands that Charles had made for 



26 HABSBURG RULE IN THE NETHERLANDS 

financial aid nor the stem edicts against heresy had estranged them 
from him. The abdication was the more regretted because at the 
same time Mary of Hungary laid down her office as regent, the 
arduous duties of which she had so long and so ably discharged. 
On the following day, October 26, the Knights of the Golden 
Fleece, the members of the Councils and the deputies of the 
provinces took the oath of allegiance to Philip, the emperor's only 
son and heir ; and Philip on his side solemnly undertook to maintain 
unimpaired the ancient rights and privileges of the several 
provinces. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 

Philip at the time of his accession to the sovereignty of the 
Netherlands was akeady King of Naples and Sicily, and Duke of 
Milan, and, by his marriage in 1554 to Mary Tudor, King-consort 
of England, in which country he was residing when summoned by 
his father to assist at the abdication ceremony at Brussels. A few 
months later (January 16, 1556) by a further act of abdication on 
the part of Charles V he became King of Castile and Aragon. It was 
a tremendous inheritance, and there is no reason to doubt that 
Philip entered upon his task with a deep sense that he had a mission 
to fulfil and with a self-sacrificing determination to spare himself 
no personal labour in the discharge of his duties. But though he 
bore to his father a certain physical likeness, Philip in character and 
disposition was almost his antithesis. Silent, reserved, inaccessible, 
Philip had none of the restless energy or the geniality of Charles, 
and was as slow and undecided in action as he was bigoted in his 
opinions and unscrupulous in his determination to compass his 
ends. He found himself on his accession to power faced with many 
difficulties, for the treasury was not merely empty, it was burdened 
with debt. Through lack of means he was compelled to patch up 
a temporary peace (February 5, 1556) with the French king at 
Vaucelles, and to take steps to reorganise his finances. 

One of Philip's first acts was the appointment of Emmanuel 
Philibert, Duke of Savoy, to the post vacated by his aunt Mary; 
but it was a position, as long as the king remained in the Nether- 
lands, of small responsibility. Early in 1556 he summoned the 
States- General to Brussels and asked for a grant of 1,300,000 
florins. The taxes proposed were disapproved by the principal 
provinces and eventually refused. Philip was very much annoyed, 
but was compelled to modify his proposals and accept what was 
oflFered by the delegates. There was indeed from the very outset 
no love lost between the new ruler and his Netherland subjects. 
Philip had spent nearly all his life in Spain, where he had received 



28 THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 

his education and early training, and he had grown up to manhood, 
in the narrowest sense of the word, a Spaniard. He was as unfamiliar 
with the laws, customs and privileges of the several provinces of 
his Netherland dominions as he was with the language of their 
peoples. He spoke and wrote only Castilian correctly, and during 
his four years' residence at Brussels he remained coldly and 
haughtily aloof, a foreigner and alien in a land where he never felt 
at home. Philip at the beginning of his reign honestly endeavoured 
to follow in his father's steps and to carry out his policy; but acts, 
which the great emperor with his conciliatory address and Flemish 
sympathies could venture upon with impunity, became suspect 
and questionable when attempted by the son. Philip made the great 
mistake of taking into his private confidence only foreign advisers, 
chief among whom was Anthony Perrenot de Granvelle, Bishop of 
Arras, a Burgundian by birth, the son of Nicholas Perrenot, who 
for thirty years had been the trusted counsellor of Charles V. 

The opening of Philip's reign was marked by signal military 
successes. War broke out afresh with France, after a brief truce, 
in 1557. The French arms however sustained two crushing reverses 
at St Quentin, August 10, 1557, and at Gravelines, July 13, 1558. 
Lamoral, Count of Egmont, who commanded the cavalry, was the 
chief agent in winning these victories. By the treaty of Cateau- 
Cambresis peace was concluded, in which the French made many 
concessions, but were allowed to retain, at the cost of Philip's ally, 
the town of Calais which had been captured from the English by 
a surprise attack in 1558. By the death of Queen Mary, which was 
said to have been hastened by the news of the loss of Calais, 
Philip's relations with England were entirely changed, and one of 
the reasons for a continuance of his residence in the Netherlands 
was removed. Peace with France therefore was no sooner assured 
than Philip determined to return to Spain, where his presence was 
required. He chose his half-sister Margaret, Duchess of Parma, to 
be regent in place of the Duke of Savoy. In July he summoned 
the Chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece — destined to be 
the last that was ever held — to Ghent in order to announce his 
intended departure. A little later the States-General were called 
together, also at Ghent, for a solemn leave-taking. On August 26, 
Philip embarked at Flushing, and quitted the Netherlands, never 
1 again to return. 



THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 29 

Philip's choice of Margaret as governess-general was a happy 
one. She was a natural daughter of Charles V. Her mother was a 
Fleming, and she had been brought up under the care of her aunts, 
Margaret of Austria and Mary of Hungary. She resembled those 
able rulers in being a woman of strong character and statesmanlike 
qualities, and no doubt she would have been as successful in her 
administration had she had the same opportunities and the same 
freedom of action as her predecessors. Philip, however, though 
henceforth he passed the whole of his life in Spain, had no in- 
tention of loosening in any way his grasp of the reins of power or of 
delegating any share of his sovereign authority. On his return to 
Madrid he showed plainly that he meant to treat the Netherland 
provinces as if they were dependencies of the Spanish crown, and 
he required from Margaret and her advisers that all the details of 
policy, legislation and administration should be submitted to him 
for supervision and sanction. This necessitated the writing of 
voluminous despatches and entailed with a man of his habits of 
indecision interminable delays. Margaret moreover was instructed 
that in all matters she must be guided by the advice of her three 
councils. By far the most important of the three was the Council 
of State, which at this time consisted of five members — ^Anthony 
Granvelle, Bishop of Arras; Baron de Barlaymont; Viglius van 
Zwychem van Aytta; Lamoral, Count of Egmont; and William, 
Prince of Orange. Barlaymont was likewise president of the Council 
of Finance and Viglius president of the Privy Council. By far the 
most important member of the Council of State, as he was much 
the ablest, was the Bishop of Arras; and he, with Barlaymont and 
Viglius, formed an inner confidential council from whom alone the 
regent asked advice. The members of this inner council, nick- 
named the Consulta, were all devoted to the interests of Philip. 
Egmont and Orange, because of their great influence and popularity 
with the people, were allowed to be nominally Councillors of State, 
but they were rarely consulted and were 'practically shut out from 
confidential access to the regent. It is no wonder that both were 
discontented with their position and soon showed openly their dis- 
satisfaction. 

Egmont, a man of showy rather than of solid qualities, held in 
1559 the important posts of Stadholder of Flanders and Artois. 
The Prince of Orange was the eldest of the five sons of William, 



30 THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 

Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, head of the younger or German 
branch of the famous house of Nassau. Members of the elder or 
Netherland branch had for several generations rendered distin- 
guished services to their Burgundian and Habsburg sovereigns. 
This elder branch became extinct in the person of Rene, the son 
of Henry of Nassau, one of Charles V's most trusted friends and 
advisers, by Claude, sister of Philibert, Prince of Orange- Chalons. 
Philibert being childless bequeathed his small principality to Rene ; 
and Rene in his turn, being killed at the siege of St Dizier in 1544, 
left by will all his possessions to his cousin William, who thus 
became Prince of Orange. His parents were Lutherans, but Charles 
insisted that William, at that time eleven years of age, should be 
brought up as a Catholic at the Court of Mary of Hungary. Here 
he became a great favourite of the emperor, who in 1550 conferred 
on him the hand of a great heiress, Anne of Egmont, only child of 
the Count of Buren. Anne died in 1558, leaving two children, a son, 
Philip Wilham, and a daughter. At the ceremony of the abdication 
in 1555, Charles entered the hall leaning on theshoulder of William, 
on whom, despite his youth, he had already bestowed an important 
command. Philip likewise specially recognised William's ability 
and gave evidence of his confidence in him by appointing him one 
of the plenipotentiaries to conclude with France the treaty of Cateau- 
Cambresis in 1559. He had also made him a Knight of the Golden 
Fleece, a Councillor of State and Stadholder of Holland, Zeeland, 
Utrecht and Burgundy (Franche-Comte). Nevertheless there arose 
between Philip and Orange a growing feeling of distrust and dislike, 
with the result that William speedily found himself at the head of 
a patriotic opposition to any attempts of the Spanish king to govern 
the Netherlands by Spanish methods. The presence of a large body 
of Spanish troops in the country aroused the suspicion that Philip 
intended to use them, if necessary, to support him in overriding 
by force the liberties and privileges of the provinces. It was largely 
owing to the influence of Orange that the States-General in 1559 
refused to vote the grant of supplies for which Philip had asked, 
unless he promised that all foreign troops should be withdrawn 
from the Netherlands. The king was much incensed at such a 
humiliating rebuff and is reported, when on the point of embarking 
at Flushing, to have charged William with being the man who had 
instigated the States thus to thwart him. 



THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 31 

Thus, when Margaret of Parma entered upon her duties as 
regent, she found that there was a feeUng of deep dissatisfaction 
and general irritation in the provinces; and this was accentuated 
as soon as it was found that, though Philip had departed, his policy 
remained. The spirit of the absent king from his distant cabinet in 
Madrid brooded, as it were, over the land. It was soon seen that 
Margaret, whatever her statesmanlike qualities or natural inclina- 
tion might be, had no real authority, nor was she permitted to take 
any steps or to initiate any policy without the advice and approval 
of the three confidential councillors placed at her side by PhiUp — 
Granvelle, Viglius and Barlaymont. Of these Granvelle, both by 
reason of his conspicuous abilities and of his being admitted more 
freely than anyone else into the inner counsels of a sovereign, as 
secretive in his methods as he was suspicious and distrustful of his 
agents, held the foremost position and drew upon himself the odium 
of a policy with which, though it was dictated from Spain, his name 
was identified. 

Orange and Egmont, with whom were joined a number of other 
leading nobles (among these Philip de Montmorency, Count of 
Hoorn, his brother the lord of Montigny, the Counts of Meghem 
and Hoogstraeten and the Marquis of Berghen), little by little 
adopted an attitude of increasing hostility to this policy, which they 
regarded as anti-national and tending to the establishment of a 
foreign despotism in the Netherlands. 

The continued presence of the Spanish troops, the severe 
measures that were being taken for the suppression of heresy, and 
a proposal for the erection of a number of new bishoprics, aroused, 
popular discontent and suspicion. Orange and Egmont, finding that 
they were never consulted except on matters of routine, wrote to 
Philip (July, 1 561) stating that they found that their attendance at 
the meetings of the Council of State was useless and asked to be 
allowed to resign their posts. Meanwhile, feeling that the presence 
of the Spanish troops was a source of weakness rather than of 
strength, Margaret and Granvelle were urging upon the king the 
necessity of their withdrawal. Neither the nobles nor the regent 
succeeded in obtaining any satisfactory response. Orange and 
Egmont accordingly absented themselves from the Council, and 
Margaret ventured on her own authority to send away the Spanish 
regiments. 



32 THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 

The question of the bishoprics was more serious. It was not a 
new question. The episcopal organisation in the Netherlands was 
admittedly inadequate. It had long been the intention of Charles V 
to create a number of new sees, but in his crowded life he had 
never found the opportunity of carrying out the proposed scheme, 
and it was one of the legacies that at his abdication he handed on 
to his son. One of the first steps taken by Philip was to obtain a 
Bull from Pope Paul IV for the creation of the new bishoprics, and 
this Bull was renewed and confirmed by Pius IV, January, 1560. 
Up to this time the entire area of the seventeen provinces had been 
divided into three unwieldly dioceses — Utrecht, Arras and Tournay . 
The See of Utrecht comprised nearly the whole of the modern 
kingdom of the Netherlands. Nor was there anyarchiepiscopalsee. 
The metropolitical jurisdiction was exercised by the three foreign 
Archbishops of Cologne, Rheims and Treves. Philip now divided 
the land into fourteen dioceses (Charles had proposed six) with 
three Metropolitans at Mechlin, Utrecht and 'sHertogenbosch^. 
Granvelle, who had obtained the Cardinal's hat, February, 1561, 
was appointed Archbishop of Mechlin, and by virtue of this office 
Primate of the Netherlands, December, 1561. This new organisa- 
tion was not carried out without arousing widespread opposition. 

f The existing bishops resented the diminution of their jurisdiction 
and dignity, and still louder were the protests of the abbots, whose 
endowments were appropriated to furnish the incomes of the new 
sees. Still more formidable was the hostility of the people generally, 
a hostility founded on fear, for the introduction of so many new 

•bishops nominated by the king was looked upon as being the first 

Vstep to prepare the way for the bringing in of the dreaded Spanish 
Inquisition. Already the edicts against heretics, which Charles V 
had enacted and severely enforced, were being carried out through- 
out the length and breadth of the land with increasing and merciless 
barbarity. Both papal and episcopal inquisitors were active in the 
work of persecution, and so many were the sentences that in many 
places the civil authorities, and even some of the stadholders, 

\ declined to carry out the executions. Public opinion looked upon 
Granvelle as the author of the new bishoprics scheme and the 
instigator of the increased activity of the persecutors. He 
was accused of being eager to take any measures to repress the 

^ Bois-le-duc. 



THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 33 

ancient liberties of the Netherland provinces and to establish a 
centralised system of absolute rule, in order to ingratiate himself 
with the king and so to secure his own advancement. That the 
cardinal was ambitious of power there can be no question. But to 
men of Granvelle's great abilities, as administrator and statesman, 
ambition is not necessarily a fault ; and access to the secret records 
and correspondence of the time has revealed that the part played 
by him was far from being so sinister as was believed. The Bishop 
of Arras was not consulted about the bishoprics proposal until after 
the Papal Bull had been secured, and at first he was unfavourable 
to it and was not anxious to become archbishop and primate. It 
was his advice which led Margaret to send away the hated Spanish 
regiments from Netherland soil; and, far from being naturally 
a relentless persecutor, there is proof that neither he nor the 
president of the Privy Council, the jurist Viglius, believed in the 
policy of harsh and brutal methods for stamping out heretical 
opinions. They had in this as in other matters to obey their master, 
and allow the odium to fall upon themselves. 

To Orange and Egmont, the two leaders of the opposition to 
Granvelle, a third name, that of Philip de Montmorency, Count of 
Hoom and Admiral of Flanders, has now to be added. These three 
worked together for the overthrow of the Cardinal, but their 
opposition at this time was based rather on political than on religious 
grounds. They all professed the Catholic faith, but the marriage 
of Orange in August, 1561, with a Lutheran, Anne daughter of 
Maurice of Saxony and granddaughter of Philip of Hesse, was 
ominous of coming change in William's religious opinions. In 1562 
the discontent of the nobles led to the formation of a league against 
the cardinal, of which, in addition to the three leaders, the Counts of 
Brederode, Mansfeld and Hoogstraeten were the principal members. 
This league, of which Orange was the brain and moving spirit, had 
as its chief aim the removal of Granvelle from office, and then 
redress of grievances. It found widespread support. The cardinal 
was assailed by a torrent of lampoons and pasquinades of the 
bitterest description. But, though Margaret began to see that the 
unpopularity of the minister was undermining her position, and was 
rendering for her the task of government more and more difficult, 
Philip was obdurate and closed his ears. The long distance between 
Madrid and Brussels and the procrastinating habits of the Spanish 

£. H.H. :: 



34 THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 

king added immensely to the regent's perplexities. She could not 
act on her own initiative, and her appeals to Philip were either 
disregarded or after long delay met by evasive replies. 

The discontented nobles in vain tried to obtain redress for their 
grievances. In the autumn of 1562 Montigny was sent on a special 
mission to Madrid, but returned without effecting anything. 
Orange, Egmont and Hoorn thereupon drew up a joint letter 
containing a bold demand for the dismissal of Granvelle, as the 
chief cause of all the troubles in the land. The king replied by 
asking that one of them should go in person to Spain to discuss the 
grievances with him, and suggesting that Egmont should be sent. 
Egmont however was averse to the proposal, and another and 
stronger letter signed by the three leaders was despatched to Madrid. 
Finding that both Margaret and Granvelle himself were in agree- 
ment with Orange, Egmont and Hoorn in their view of the situation, 
Margaret advising, with the cardinal's acquiescence, the necessity 
of the minister's removal from his post, Philip determined at last 
that Granvelle should leave the Netherlands. But in accordance 
w^th the counsel of Alva, who was opposed on principle to any 
concession, he characteristically employed circuitous and clandestine 
means to conceal from the world any appearance of yielding to the 
request of his subjects. In January, 1564 he sent a letter to the 
Duchess of Parma expressing his displeasure at the lords' letter, 
and saying that they must substantiate their complaints. The same 
messenger (Armenteros, the duchess' secretary) carried another 
letter for Granvelle headed *' secret," in which the cardinal was told 
that " owing to the strong feeling that had been aroused against him, 
he was to ask permission from the regent to go away for a short 
time to visit his mother." About a week after these letters had 
reached their destination another courier brought a reply to the 
three nobles, which, though written on the same day as the others, 
bore a date three weeks later, in which they were bidden to take 
their places again in the Council of State, and a promise was given 
that the charges against Granvelle after substantiation should be 
maturely considered. This letter was delivered on March i, after 
Granvelle had already, in obedience to the king's orders, asked for 
leave of absence to visit his mother in Franche-Comte. The cardinal 
actually left Brussels on March 13, to the great joy of every class 
of the people, never to return. 



THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 35 

With the departure of Granvelle, the nobles once more took their 
seats on the Council of State. The Consulta disappeared, and the 
regent herself appeared to be relieved and to welcome the disap- 
pearance of the man whose authority had overshadowed her own. 
But the change, though it placed large powers of administration 
and of patronage in the hands of Nether landers instead of foreigners, 
did not by any means introduce purer methods of government. 
Many of the nobles were heavily in debt ; most of them were self- 
seeking ; offices and emoluments were eagerly sought for, and were 
even put up for sale. Armenteros, Margaret's private secretary (to 
whom the nickname of Argenteros was given), was the leading spirit 
in this disgraceful traffic, and enriched himself by the acceptance 
of bribes for the nomination to preferments. It was an unedifying 
state of things ; and public opinion was not long in expressing its 
discontent with such an exhibition of widespread venality and 
greed. All this was duly reported to Philip by Granvelle, who 
continued, in his retirement, to keep himself well informed of all 
that was going on. 

Meanwhile by the efforts of Orange, Egmont and Hoorn, chiefly 
of the former, proposals of reform were being urged for the 
strengthening of the powers of the Council of State, for the re- 
organisation of finance, and for the more moderate execution of 
the placards against heresy. While discussion concerning these 
matters was in progress, came an order from Philip (August, 1564) 
for the enforcing of the decrees of the recently concluded Council 
of Trent. This at once aroused protest and opposition. It was 
denounced as an infringement of the fundamental privileges of the 
provinces. Philip's instructions however were peremptory. In these 
circumstances it was resolved by the Council of State to despatch 
Egmont on a special mission to Madrid to explain to the king in 
person the condition of affairs in the Netherlands. Egmont having 
expressed his willingness to go, instructions were drawn up for him 
by Viglius. When these w^ere read at a meeting of the council 
convened for the purpose, Orange in a long and eloquent speech 
boldly expressed his dissent from much that Viglius had written, 
and wished that Philip should be plainly told that it was impossible 
to enforce the decrees and that the severity of religious persecution 
must be moderated. The council determined to revise the in- 
structions on the lines suggested by Orange, whose words had such 

3—2 



36 THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 

an effect upon the aged Viglius, that he had that very night a stroke 
of apoplexy, which proved fatal. 

Egmont set out for Spain, January 15, 1565, and on his arrival 
was received by Philip with extreme courtesy and graciousness. He 
was entertained splendidly; presents were made to him, which, 
being considerably in debt, he gladly accepted ; but as regards his 
\ mission he was put off with evasions and blandishments, and he 
returned home with a reply from the king containing some vague 
promises of reform in financial and other matters, but an absolute 
refusal to modify the decrees against heresy. Rather would he 
I sacrifice a hundred thousand lives, if he had them, than concede 
I liberty of worship in any form. For some months however no 
attempt was made to carry out active persecutions ; and the regent 
meanwhile did her utmost to place before the king urgent reasons 
for the modification of his policy, owing to the angry spirit of unrest 
and suspicion which was arising in the provinces. She begged 
Philip to visit the Netherlands and acquaint himself personally with 
the difficulties of a situation which, unless her advice were taken, 
would rapidly grow worse and pass beyond her control. Philip how- 
ever was deaf alike to remonstrance or entreaty. On November 5, 
1565, a royal despatch reached Brussels in which the strictest 
orders were renewed for the promulgation throughout the provinces 
of the decrees of the Council of Trent and for the execution of the 
placards against heretics, while the proposals that had been made 
for an extension of the powers of the Council of State and for the 
summoning of the States-General were refused. As soon as these 
fateful decisions were known, and the Inquisition began to set about 
its fell work in real earnest, the popular indignation knew no bounds. 
A large number of the magistrates refused to take any part in the 
cruel persecution that arose, following the example of Orange, 
Egmont, Berghen and others of the stadholders and leading nobles. 
A strong spirit of opposition to arbitrary and foreign rule arose 
and found expression in the action taken by a large number of 
the members of the so-called ''lesser nobility." Many of these 
had come to Brussels, and at a meeting at the house of the 
Count of Culemburg the formation of a league to resist arbitrary 
rule was proposed. The leaders were Lewis of Nassau, brother of 
the Prince of Orange, Nicolas de Harnes, Philip de Marnix, lord of 
Sainte Aldegonde, and Henry, Viscount of Brederode. Other 



THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 37 

meetings were held, and a document embodying the principles and 
demands of the Confederates was drawn up, known as the Compro- 
mise, which was widely distributed among the nobles and quickly 
obtained large and constantly increasing support. The signatories 
of the Compromise, while professing themselves to be faithful and 
loyal subjects of the king, denounced the Inquisition in its every 
form "as being unjust and contrary to all laws human and divine *' ; 
and they pledged themselves to stand by one another in resisting its 
introduction into the Netherlands and in preventing the carrying- 
out of the placards against heresy, while at the same time under- 
taking to maintain the royal authority and public peace in the land. 

At first the great nobles stood aloof, doubtful what course to 
pursue. At the instigation of Orange conferences were held, at 
w^hich, by his advice, a petition or Request, setting forth the 
grievances and asking for redress, should be made in writing for 
presentation to the regent. The original draft of this document was 
the work of Lewis of Nassau. These conferences, however, revealed 
that there was a considerable divergence of views among the leading 
nobles. Egmont and Meghem were indeed so alarmed at the 
character of the movement, which seemed to them to savour of 
treason, that they separated themselves henceforth from Orange 
and Hoorn and openly took the side of the government. The 
duchess after some demur agreed to receive the petition. A body 
of confederates under the leadership of Brederode and Lewis of 
Nassau marched to the palace, where they were received by 
Margaret in person. The petitioners asked the regent to send an 
envoy to Madrid to lay before the king the state of feeling among 
his loyal subjects in the Netherlands, praying him to withdraw the 
Inquisition and moderate the placards against heresy, and mean- 
while by her own authority to suspend them until the king's 
answer had been received. The regent replied that she had no 
power to suspend the Inquisition or the placards, but would under- 
take, while awaiting the royal reply, to mitigate their operation. 

On the last day of their stay at Brussels, April 8, the confederates 
tinder the presidency of Brederode, to the number of about three 
hundred, dined together at the Hotel Culemburg. In the course of 
the meal Brederode drew the attention of the company now some- 
what excited with wine to a contemptuous phrase attributed by 
common report to Barlaymont. Margaret was somewhat perturbed 



38 THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 

at the formidable numbers of the deputation, as it entered the palace 
court, and it was said that Barlaymont remarked that ''these 
beggars " {ces gueux) need cause her no fear. Brederode declared 
thatne^had no objection to the name and was quite willing to be 
" a beggar " in the cause of his country and his king. It was destined 
to be a name famous in history. Immediately loud cries arose from 
the assembled guests, until the great hall echoed with the shouts of 
\ywent les Gueux. From this date onwards the confederates were 
known as ''les gueux," and they adopted a coarse grey dress with 
the symbols of beggarhood — the wallet and the bowl — ^worn as the 
insignia of their league. It was the beginning of a popular movement, 
which made rapid headway among all classes. A medal was likewise 
struck, which bore on one side the head of the king, on the other 
two clasped hands with the inscription — Fideles au roy jusques a la 
hesace. 

Thus was the opposition to the tyrannical measures of the 
government organising itself in the spring of 1566. It is a great 
mistake to suppose that the majority of those who signed "the 
Compromise" or presented "the Request" were disloyal to their 
sovereign or converts to the reformed faith. Among those who 
denounced the methods of the Inquisition and of the Blood 
Placards were a large number, who without ceasing to be Catholics, 
had been disillusioned by the abuses which had crept into the 
Roman Church, desired their removal only to a less degree than the 
Protestants themselves, and had no sympathy with the terrible and 
remorseless persecution on Spanish lines, which sought to crush 
out all liberty of thought and all efforts of religious reform by the 
stake and the sword of the executioner. Nevertheless this league of 
the nobles gave encouragement to the sectaries and was the signal 
for a great increase in the number and activity of the Calvinist and 
Zwinglian preachers, who flocked into the land from the neigh- 
bouring countries. Such was the boldness of these preachers that, 
instead of being contented with secret meetings, they began to hold 
their conventicles in the fields or in the outskirts of the towns. 
Crowds of people thronged to hear them, and the authority of the 
magistrates was defied and flouted. The regent was in despair. 
Shortly after the presentation of the Request it was determined by 
the advice of the council to send special envoys to lay before the 
king once more the serious state of things. The Marquis of Berghen 



THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 39 

and Baron Montigny consented with some demur to undertake the 
mission, but for various reasons they did not reach Madrid till some 
two months later. They were received with apparent courtesy, and 
after several conferences the king, on July 31, despatched a letter 
to Margaret in which he undertook to do away with the Papal 
Inauisition and offered to allow such moderation of the Placards 
as did not imply any recognition of heretical opinions or any injury 
to the Catholic faith. He refused to consent to the meeting of the 
States, but he sent letters couched in most friendly terms to Orange 
and Egmont appealing to their loyalty and asking them to support 
the regent by their advice and influence. These demonstrations of 
a conciliatory temper were however mere temporising. He was 
playing false. A document is in existence, dated August 9, in which 
Philip states that these concessions had been extorted from him 
against his will and that he did not regard himself as bound by 
them, and he informed the Pope that the abolition of the Papal 
Inquisition was a mere form of words. 

Meanwhile events were moving fast in the Netherlands. The 
open-air preachings were attended by thousands ; and at Antwerp, 
which was one of the chief centres of Calvinism, disorders broke 
out, and armed conflicts were feared. Orange himself, as burgrave 
of Antwerp, at the request of the duchess visited the town and with 
the aid of Brederode and Meghem succeeded in effecting a com- 
promise between the Catholic and Protestant parties. The latter 
were allowed to hold their preachings undisturbed, so long as they 
met outside and not within the city walls. The regent in her alarm 
was even driven to make overtures to the confederates to assist her 
in the maintenance of order. There was much parleying, in which 
Orange and Egmont took part; and in July an assembly of the 
signatories of the Compromise was called together at St Trond in 
the district of Liege. Some two thousand were present, presided 
over by Lewis of Nassau. It was resolved to send twelve delegates 
to Margaret to lay before her the necessity of finding a remedy for 
the evils which were afflicting and disturbing the land. They offered 
to consult with Orange and Egmont as to the best means by which 
they could work together for the country's good, but hinting that, 
if no redress was given, they might be forced to look for foreign 
aid. Indeed this was no empty threat, for Lewis had already been in 
communication with the Protestant leaders both in France and in 



40 THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 

the Rhin elands, as to the terms on which they would furnish armed 
assistance ; and Orange was probably not altogether in ignorance of 
the fact. The regent was angry at the tone of the delegates, whom 
she received on July 26, but in her present impotence thought it best 
to dissemble. She promised to give consideration to the petition, 
and summoned a meeting of the Knights of the Golden Fleece to 
meet at Brussels on August 18, when she would decide upon her 
answer. But, when that date arrived, other and more pressing reasons 
than the advice of counsellors compelled her to yield to the con- 
federates a large part of their demands. On August 23 she agreed, 
in return for help in the restoration of order, to concede liberty of 
preaching, so long as those who assembled did not bear arms and 
did not interfere with the Catholic places of worship and religious 
services. Further an indemnity was promised to all who had signed 
the Compromise. 

The reasons which influenced her were, first the receipt, on August 
12, of the conciliatory letter from the king, to which reference has 
already been made, in which he consented to a certain measure of 
toleration ; and secondly a sudden outburst of iconoclastic fury on 
the part of the Calvinistic sectaries, which had spread with great 
rapidity through many parts of the land. On August 14, at St Omer, 
Ypres,Courtray, Valenciennes and Tournay, fanatical mobs entered 
the churches destroying and wrecking, desecrating the altars, 
images, vestments and works of art, and carrying away the sacred 
vessels and all that was valuable. On August 16 and 17 the cathedral 
of Antwerp was entered by infuriated and sacrilegious bands armed 
with axes and hammers, who made havoc and ruin of the interior 
of the beautiful church. In Holland and Zeeland similar excesses 
were committed. Such conduct aroused a feeling of the deepest 
indignation and reprobation in the minds of all right-thinking men, 
and alienated utterly those more moderate Catholics who up till 
now had been in favour of moderation. Of the great nobles, who 
had hitherto upheld the cause of the national liberties and privileges 
against the encroachments of a foreign despotism, many now fell 
away. Among these were Aremberg, Meghem and Mansfeld. 
Egmont hesitated. As might have been expected, the news of the 
outrages, when it reached Philip's ears, filled him with rage and 
grief; and he is reported to have exclaimed, " It shall cost them dear. 
I swear it by the soul of my father." From this time forward he was 



THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 41 

determined to visit with exemplary punishment not only the rioters 
and the Protestant sectaries, but more especially the great nobles 
on whose shoulders he laid the whole blame for the troubles that 
had arisen. 

He was in no hurry to act, and announced that it was his 
intention to go to the Netherlands in person and enquire into the 
alleged grievances. So he told his councillors and wrote to Margaret. 
No one seems to have suspected his deep-laid scheme for allaying 
the suspicions of his intended victims until the right moment 
came for laying his hands upon them and crushing all opposition 
by overw^helming force. Orange alone, who had his paid spies at 
Madrid, had a presage of what was coming and took measures of 
precaution betimes. An intercepted letter from the Spanish 
ambassador at Paris to the Regent Margaret, specifically mentioned 
Orange, Egmont and Hoorn as deserving of exemplary punishment ; 
and on October 3 the prince arranged a meeting at Dendermonde to 1 
consider what should be their course of action. Inaddition to Egmont 
and Hoorn, Hoogstraeten and Lewis of Nassau were present. 
William and Lewis urged that steps should be taken for preparing 
armed resistance should the necessity arise. But neither Egmont 
nor Hoorn would consent ; they would not be guilty of any act of 
disloyalty to their sovereign. The result of the meeting was a great x 
disappointment to Orange, and this date marked a turning-point | 
in his life. In concert with his brothers, John and Lewis, he 
began to enter into negotiations with several of the German 
Protestant princes for the formation of a league for the protection 
of the adherents of the reformed faith in the Netherlands. Now 1 
for the first time he severed his nominal allegiance to the Roman I 
Church, and in a letter to Philip of Hesse avowed himself a * 
Lutheran. 

During these same autumn months Philip furnished his sister 
with considerable sums of money for the levying of a strong 
mercenary force, German and Walloon. Possessed now of a body 
of troops that she could trust, Margaret in the spring of 1567 took 
energetic steps to suppress all insurrectionary movements and dis- 
orders, and did not scruple to disregard the concessions which had 
been wrung from her on August 23. The confederate nobles, 
satisfied with her promises, had somewhat prematurely dissolved 
their league ; but one of the most fiery and zealous among them, 



42 THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 

John de Marnix, lord of Thoulouse, collected at Antwerp a body of 
some 2000 Calvinists and attempted to make himself master of that 
city. At Austruweel he was encountered (March 13) by a Walloon 
force despatched by Margaret with orders to "exterminate the 
heretics." Thoulouse and almost the whole of his following perished 
in the fight. In the south at the same time the conventicles were 
mercilessly suppressed and the preachers driven into exile. 

Margaret now felt herself strong enough to demand that the 
stadholders and leading nobles should, on pain of dismissal from 
their posts, take an oath "to serve the king and to act for and 
against whomsoever His Majesty might order." Egmont took the 
oath; Hoorn, Hoogstraeten and Brederode declined to do so and 
resigned their offices. Orange offered his resignation, but Margaret 
was unwilling to accept it and urged him to discuss the matter first 
with Egmont and Meghem. The three nobles met accordingly at 
Willebroek, April 2. William used his utmost powers of persuasion 
in an attempt to convince Egmont that he was courting destruction- 
But in vain. He himself was not to be moved from his decision, and 
the two friends, who had worked together so long in the patriot cause, 
parted, never to meet again. Orange saw that he was no longer safe 
in the Netherlands and, on April 22, he set out from Breda for the 
residence of his brother John at Dillenburg. Here in exile he could 
watch in security the progress of events, and be near at hand should 
circumstances again require his intervention in the affairs of the 
Netherlands. 

Orange did not take this extreme step without adequate cause. 
At the very time that he left the Netherlands Philip was taking leave 
of the Duke of Alva, whom he was despatching at the head of a 
veteran force to carry out without pity or remorse the stern duty 
of expelling heresy from the provinces and punishing all those, and 
especially the leaders, who had ventured to oppose the arbitrary 
exercise of the royal authority. He had for some time been preparing 
this expedition. He still kept up the pretence that he was coming in 
person to enquire into the alleged grievances, but he never had the 
slightest intention of quitting Madrid. Alva sailed from Cartagena 
(April 27) for Genoa, and proceeded at once to draw together from 
the various Spanish garrisons in Italy a picked body of some 12,000 
men. With these he set out in June for his long march across the 
Alps and through Burgundy, Lorraine and Luxemburg. His 



THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 43 

progress, jealously watched by the French and Swiss, met with 
no opposition save for the difficulties of the route. He entered 
the Netherlands on August 8, with his army intact. A number of 
notables, amongst whom was Egmont, came to meet him on his 
way to Brussels. He received them, more particularly Egmont, with 
every appearance of graciousness. Alva as yet bore only the title 
of Captain- General, but the king had bestowed on him full powers 
civil and military ; and the Duchess of Parma, though still nominally 
regent, found herself reduced to a nonentity. Alva's first step was/ 
to place strong Spanish garrisons in the principal cities, his next 
to get the leaders who had been marked for destruction into hislj 
power. To effect this he succeeded by fair and flattering words in 
securing the presence of both Egmont and Hoorn at Brussels. Under 
the pretence of taking part in a consultation they were (September 9) 
invited to the duke's residence and on their arrival suddenly found 
themselves arrested. At the same time their secretaries and papers 
were seized, and Antony van Stralen, the burgomaster of Antwerp, 
was placed under arrest. These high-handed actions were the prelude 
to a reign of terror ; and Margaret, already humiliated by finding 
herself superseded, requested her brother to accept her resignation. 
On October 6 the office of Governor- General was conferred upon 
Alva ; and shortly afterwards the duchess left the Netherlands and 
returned to Parma. 

Alva had now the reins of power in his hand, and with a relentless 
zeal and cold-blooded ferocity, which have made his name a by- 
word, he set about the accomplishment of the fell task with which 
his master had entrusted him. He had to enforce with drastic rigour 
all the penalties decreed by the placards against heretics and 
preachers, and to deal summarily with all who had taken any part 
in opposition to the government. But to attempt to do this by means 
of the ordinary courts and magistrates would consume time and 
lead to many acquittals. Alva therefore had no sooner thrown off the 
mask by the sudden and skilfully planned arrest of Egmont and 
Hoorn, than he proceeded to erect an extraordinary tribunal, which 
had no legal standing except such as the arbitrary will of the duke 
conferred upon it. This so-called Council of Troubles, which 
speedily acquired in popular usage the name of the Coun cil of Blood. 1 
virtually consisted of Alva himself, who was president and to whose 
final decision all cases were referred, and two Spanish lawyers, his 



44 THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 

chosen tools and agents, Juan de Vargas and Louis del Rio. The 
two royalist nobles , Noircarmes and Barlaymont, and five Netherland 
jurists also had seats; but, as only the Spaniards voted, the others 
before long ceased to attend the meetings. The proceedings indeed 
were, from the legal point of view, a mere travesty of justice. A 
whole army of commissioners was let loose upon the land, and 
informers were encouraged and rewarded. Multitudes of accused 
were hauled before the tribunal and were condemned by batches 
almost without the form of a trial. For long hours day by day 
Vargas and del Rio revelled in their work of butchery ; and in all 
parts of the Netherlands the executioners were busy. It was of no 
use for the accused to appeal to the charters and privileges of their 
provinces. All alike were summoned to Brussels; non curamus 
privilegios vestros declared Vargas in his ungrammatical Latin. Hand 
in hand with the wholesale sentences of death went the confiscation 
of property. Vast sums went into the treasury. The whole land for 
awhile was terror-stricken. All organised opposition was crushed, 
and no one dared to raise his voice in protest. 

The Prince of Orange was summoned to appear in person before 
the council within six weeks, under pain of perpetual banishment 
and confiscation of his estates. He refused to come, and energetically 
denied that the council had any jurisdiction over him. The same 
sentence was passed upon all the other leaders who had placed 
themselves out of reach of Alva's arm — Sainte Aldegonde, Hoogs- 
traeten, Culemburg, Montigny, Lewis of Nassau and others. Unable 
to lay hands upon the prince himself, the governor-general took 
dastardly advantage of William's indiscretion in leaving his eldest 
son at Lou vain to pursue his studies at the university. At the 
beginning of 1568 Philip William, Count of Buren in right of his 
mother, was seized and sent to Madrid to be brought up at the court 
of Philip to hate the cause to which his father henceforth devoted 
his life. Already indeed, before the abduction of his son. Orange 
from his safe retreat at Dillenburg had been exerting himself to 
raise troops for the invasion of the Netherlands. He still professed 
loyalty to the king and declared that in the king's name he wished to 
restore to the provinces those liberties and privileges which Philip 
himself had sworn that he would maintain. The difficulty was to 
find the large sum of money required for such an enterprise, and 
it was only by extraordinary efforts that a sufficient amount was 



THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 45 

obtained. Part of the money was collected in Antwerp and various 
towns of Holland and Zeeland, the rest subscribed by individuals. 
John of Nassau pledged his estates, Orange sold his plate and jewels, 
and finally a war-chest of 200,000 florins was gathered together. It 
was proposed to attack the Netherlands from three directions. From 
the north Le\^ds of Nassau was to lead an army from the Ems into 
Friesland; Hoogstraeten on the east to effect an entrance by way 
of Maestricht ; while another force of Huguenots and refugees in the 
south was to march into Artois. It was an almost desperate scheme 
in the face of veteran troops in a central position under such a tried 
commander as Alva. The last-named French force and that under 
Hoogstraeten were easily defeated and scattered by Spanish 
detachments sent to meet them. Lewis of Nassau was at first more 
successful. Entering Groningen at the head of eight or nine thousand 
undisciplined troops he was attacked, May 23, in a strong position 
behind a morass by a Spanish force under the Count of x\remberg, 
Stadholder of Friesland, at Heiligerlee. He gained a complete 
victory. Aremberg himself was slain, as was also the younger 
brother of Le\vis, Adolphus of Nassau. The triumph of the invaders 
was of short duration. Alva himself took in hand the task of dealing 
'wdth the rebels. At the head of 15,000 troops he drove before him 
the levies of Nassau to Jemmingen on the estuary of the Ems, and 
here with the loss of only seven men he completely annihilated 
them. Lewis himself and a few others alone escaped by throwing 
themselves into the water and s\\imming for their lives. 

The action at Heiligerlee, by compelling the governor-general 
to take the field, had hastened the fate of Egmont and Hoorn. After 
their arrest the two noblemen were kept in solitary confinement 
in the citadel of Ghent for several months, while the long list 
of charges against them was being examined by the Council of 
Troubles — in other words by Vargas and del Rio. These charges 
they angrily denied; and great efforts were made on their behalf 
by the wife of Egmont and the dowager Counte§s of Hoorn. 
Appeals were made to the governor-general and to Philip himself, 
either for pardon on the ground of services rendered to the State, 
or at least for a trial, as Knights of the Golden Fleece, before the 
Court of the Order. The Emperor Maximilian himself pleaded with 
Philip for clemency, but without avail. Their doom had been settled 
in advance, and the king was inflexible. Alva accordingly determined 



46 THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLT 

that they should be executed before he left Brussels for his campaign 
in the north. On June 2, the council, after refusing to hear any 
further evidence in the prisoners' favour, pronounced them guilty 
of high treason; and Alva at once signed the sentences of death. 
Egmont and Hoorn the next day were brought by a strong detach- 
ment of troops from Ghent to Brussels and were confined in a 
building opposite the town hall, known as the Broodhuis. On 
June 5, their heads were struck oif upon a scaffold erected in the 
great square before their place of confinement. Both of them met 
their death with the utmost calmness and courage. The effect of 
I this momentous stroke of vengeance upon these two patriot leaders, 
) both of them good Catholics, who had always professed loyalty to 
<V ■ their sovereign, and one of whom, Egmont, had performed distin- 
guished services for his country and king, was profound. A wave 
of mingled rage and sorrow swept over the land. It was not only 
an act of cruel injustice, but even as an act of policy a blunder of 
the first magnitude, which was sure to bring, as it did bring, 
retribution in its train. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

The complete failure of the expeditions of Hoogstraeten and of 
Lewis of Nassau was a great discouragement to the Prince of Orange. 
Nevertheless after receiving the news of Jemmingen he wrote to 
his brother, "With God's help I am determined to go on." By great 
exertions he succeeded in gathering together a heterogeneous force 
of German and Walloon mercenaries numbering about 18,000 men, 
and with these in the beginning of October he crossed the frontier. 
But to maintain such a force in the field required far larger financial 
resources than William had at his disposal. Alva was aware of this, 
and, as the prince made his way into Brabant, he followed his steps 
with a small body of veteran troops, cutting off supplies and 
stragglers, but declining battle. The mercenaries, debarred from 
plunder and in arrears of pay, could not be kept together more than 
a few weeks. In November Orange withdrew into France and dis- 
banded the remnants of his army. In disguise he managed to escape 
with some difficulty through France to Dillenburg. His brothers, 
Lewis and Henry, joined the Huguenot army under Coligny and 
took part in the battles of Moncontour and larnac. 

Alva was now apparently supreme in the Netherlands; and 
crowds of refugees fled the country to escape the wholesale 
persecutions of the Council of Blood. Alva however, like his 
predecessor and indeed like all Spanish governors engaged in 
carrying out the policy of Philip II, was always hampered by lack 
of funds. The Spanish treasury was empty. The governor-general's 
troops no less than those of Orange clamoured for their regular pay, 
and it was necessary to find means to satisfy them. The taxes voted 
for nine years in 1559 had come to an end. New taxes could only be 
imposed with the assent of the States- General. Alva, however, after 
his victory at lemmingen and the dispersion of the army of Orange, 
felt himself strong enough to summon the States- General and 
demand their assent to the scheme of taxation which he proposed. 
The governor-general asked for (i) a tax of five per cent., the 



48 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

"twentieth penny," on all transfers of real estate, (2) a tax of ten 
per cent., the "tenth penny," on all sales of commodities. These 
taxes, which were an attempt to introduce into the Netherlands the 
system known in Castile as alcabala^were to be granted in perpetuity, 
thus, as the duke hoped, obviating the necessity of having again to 
summon the States-General. In addition to these annual taxes he 
proposed a payment once for all of one per cent., "the hundredth 
penny," on all property, real or personal. Such a demand was 
contrary to all precedent in the Netherlands and an infringement 
of time-honoured charters and privileges ; and even the terror, which 
Alva's iron-handed tyranny had inspired, did not prevent his 
meeting with strong opposition. The proposals had to be referred 
to the provincial estates, and everywhere difficulties were raised. 
All classes were united in resistance. Petitions came pouring in 
protesting against impositions which threatened to ruin the trade 
»'and industries of the country. Alva found it impossible to proceed. 
The "hundredth penny" was voted, but instead of the other 
taxes, which were to provide a steady annual income, he had to 
content himself with a fixed payment of 2,000,000 guilders for two 
years only. The imposition of these taxes on the model of the 
alcabala had been part of a scheme for sweeping away all the 
provincial jurisdictions and rights and forming the whole of the 
Netherlands into a unified state, as subservient to despotic rule as 
was Castile itself. A greater centralisation of government had been 
the constant policy of the Burgundian and Habsburg rulers since 
the time of Philip the Good, a policy to be commended if carried 
out in a statesmanlike and moderate spirit without any sudden or 
violent infringement of traditional liberties. The aim of Philip of 
Spain as it was interpreted by his chosen instrument, the Duke of 
Alva, was far more drastic. With Alva and his master all restrictions 
upon the absolute authority of the sovereign were obstacles to be 
swept remorselessly out of the way ; civil and religious liberty in 
their eyes deserved no better fate than to be suppressed by force. 
Alva's experience was that of many would-be tyrants before and 
since his day, that the successful application of force is limited by 
the power of the purse. His exchequer was empty. Philip was 
himself in financial difficulties and could spare him no money from 
Spain. The refusal of the provincial estates of the Netherlands to 
sanction his scheme of taxation deprived him of the means for 



THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 49 

imposing his will upon them. His reign of terror had produced 
throughout the land a superficial appearance of peace. There were 
at the beginning of 1570 no open disturbances or insurrectionary 
movements to be crushed, but the people were seething with dis- 
content, and the feeling of hatred aroused by the presence of 
the Spanish Inquisition and the foreign soldiery and by the 
proceedings of the Council of Blood was, day by day, becoming 
deeper and more embittered. 

This condition of affairs was duly reported to the king at Madrid ; 
and there was no lack of councillors at his side who were unfriendly 
to Alva and eager to make the most of the complaints against him. 
Among these enemies was Ruy Gomez, the king's private secretary, 
who recommended a policy of leniency, as did Granvelle, who was 
now at Naples. Philip never had any scruples about throwing over 
his agents , and he announced his intention of proclaiming an amnesty 
on the occasion when Anne of Austria, his intended bride and 
fourth wife, set sail from Antwerp for Spain. The proclamation was 
actually made at Antwerp by the governor-general in person, July 
16, 1570. It was a limited declaration of clemency, for six classes 
of offenders were excepted, and it only extended to those who 
within two months made their peace with the Catholic Church and 
abjured the Reformed doctrines. 

During the years 1570-71 there were however few outward signs 
of the gradual undermining of Alva's authority. There was sullen 
resentment and discontent throughout the land, but no attempt at 
overt resistance. The iron hand of the governor- general did not 
relax its firm grasp of the reins of power, and the fear of his 
implacable vengeance filled men's hearts. He ruled by force, not by 
love ; and those who refused to submit had either to fly the country 
or to perish by the hands of the executioner. Nevertheless during 
these sad years the Prince of Orange and Lewis of Nassau, in spite 
of the apparent hopelessness of the situation, were unremitting in 
their efforts to raise fresh forces. William at Dillenburg exerted 
himself to the uttermost to obtain assistance from the Protestant 
princes of the Rhineland. With the Calvinists he was, however, as 
yet strongly suspect. He himself was held to be a lukewarm convert 
from Catholicism to the doctrines of Augsburg ; and his wife was 
the daughter and heiress of Maurice of Saxony, the champion of 
Lutheranism. William's repudiation of Anne of Saxony for her 

£. H. H. 4. 



50 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

repeated infidelities (March, 1571) severed this Lutheran alliance. 
The unfortunate Anne, after six years' imprisonment, died insane in 
1577. At the same time the closest relations of confidence and 
friendship sprang up between Orange and the well-known Calvinist 
writer and leader, Philip de Marnix, lord of Sainte Aldegonde. This 
connection with Sainte Aldegonde ensured for William the support 
of the Calvinists ; and secret agents of the prince were soon busily 
at work in the different parts of the provinces promising armed 
assistance and collecting levies for the raising of an invading force. 
Foremost among these active helpers were Jacob van Wesenbeke, 
Diedrich Sonoy and Paul Buys ; and the chief scene of their opera- 
tions were the provinces of Holland and Zeeland, already distinguished 
for their zeal in the cause of freedom. The amount of cash that was 
raised was, however, for some time very small. There was goodwill 
in plenty, but the utter failure of the prince's earlier efforts had 
made people despair. 

These earlier efforts had indeed, on land, been disastrous, but 
they had not been confined entirely to land operations. Orange, in 
his capacity as a sovereign prince, had given letters of marque to a 
number of vessels under the command of the lord of Dolhain. These 
vessels were simply corsairs and they were manned by fierce 
fanatical sectaries, desperadoes inflamed at once by bitter hatred of 
the papists and by the hope of plunder. These " Beggars of the Sea " 
{Gueux de mer) , as they were called, rapidly increased in number and 
soon made themselves a terror in the narrow seas by their deeds of 
\ reckless daring and cruelty. William tried in vain to restrain 
\ excesses which brought him little profit and no small discredit. 
It was to no purpose that he associated the lord of Lumbres in the 
chief command with Dolhain. Their subordinates, William de 
Blois, lord of Treslong, and William de la Marck, lord of Lumey, 
were bold, unscrupulous adventurers who found it to their interest 
to allow their unruly crews to burn and pillage, as they lusted, not 
only their enemies' ships in the open sea, but churches and 
monasteries along the coast and up the estuaries that they infested. 
The difficulty was to find harbours in which they could take refuge 
and dispose of their booty. For some time they were permitted to 
use the English ports freely, and the Huguenot stronghold at La 
Rochelle was also open to them as a market. Queen Elizabeth, as 
was her wont, had no scruple in conniving at acts of piracy to the 



THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 51 

injury of the Spaniard; but at last, at the beginning of 1572, in 
consequence of strong representations from Madrid, she judged it 
politic to issue an order forbidding the Sea-Beggars to enter any- 
English harbours. The pirates, thus deprived of the shelter which 
had made their depredations possible, would have been speedily in 
very bad case, but for an unexpected and surprising stroke of good 
fortune. It chanced that a large number of vessels under Lumbres 
and Treslong were driven by stress of weather into the estuary of 
the Maas ; and finding that the Spanish garrison of Brill had left 
the town upon a punitive expedition, the rovers landed and effected 
an entry by burning one of the gates. The place was seized and /\ 
pillaged, and the marauders were on the point of returning with 
their spoil to their ships, when at the suggestion of Treslong it was 
determined to place a garrison in the town and hold it as a harbour / 
of refuge in the name of the Prince of Orange, as Stadholder of// 
Holland. On April i, 1572, the prince's flag was hoisted over Brill/ 
and the foundation stone was laid of the future Dutch republic. I 
William himself at first did not realise the importance of this 
capture, and did not take any steps to express his active approval; 
but it w^as otherwise with his brother Lewis, who was at the time 
using his utmost endeavours to secure if not the actual help, at least 
the connivance, of Charles IX to his conducting an expedition from 
France into the Netherlands. Lewis saw^ at once the great advantage ■ 
to the cause of the possession of a port like Brill, and he urged the 
Beggars to tr}^ and gain possession of Flushing also, before Alva's' 
orders for the strengthening of the garrison and the defences had 
been carried out. Flushing by its position commanded the approach 
by water to Antwerp. When the ships of Lumbres and Treslong 
appeared before the town, the inhabitants rose in revolt, over- 
powered the garrison, and opened the gates. This striking success, 
following upon the taking of Brill, aroused great enthusiasm. The ' 
rebels had now a firm foothold both in Holland and Zeeland, and 
their numbers grew rapidly from day to day. Soon the whole of the 
island of Walcheren, on which Flushing stands, w^as in their hands 
with the exception of the capital Middelburg ; and in Holland several 
important towns hoisted the flag of revolt and acknowledged the 
Prince of Orange as their lawful Stadholder. From Holland the 
rebellion spread into Friesland. Finally on June 19 an assembly of 
the Estates of Holland was, at the instance of Dordrecht, convened 



A— 2 



52 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

to meet in that town. There was but one representative of the 
nobility present at this meeting, whose legality was more than 
doubtful, but it included deputies of no less than twelve out of the 
fourteen towns which were members of the Estates. The prince 
sent Ste Aldegonde as his plenipotentiary. The step taken was 
practically an act of insurrection against the king. William had 
resigned his stadholdership in 1568 and had afterwards been 
declared an outlaw. Bossu had been by royal authority appointed to 
the vacant office. The Estates now formally recognised the prince 
as Stadholder of the king in Holland, Zeeland, West Friesland 
and Utrecht; and he was further invested with the supreme 
command of the forces both by land and sea and was charged with 
the duty of protecting the country against foreign oppression or 
invasion by foreign troops. Ste Aldegonde in the name of the prince 
announced his acceptance of the posts that had been conferred on 
him and declared that he desired, as a condition of such acceptance, 
that the principle of religious freedom and liberty of worship 
should be conceded to Catholics and Protestants alike. To this the 
Estates assented. Orange took an oath to maintain the towns in the 
rights and privileges of which they had been deprived by Alva and 
not to enter into any negotiations or conclude any treaty with Spain 
without their consent. The Court of Holland for the administration 
of justice was reconstituted and a Chamber of Finance erected. The 
question of finance was indeed crucial, for the new stadholder 
asked for a subsidy of 100,000 crowns a month for the support of 
the army he had raised for the invasion of Brabant ; and the Estates 
agreed to take measures for appropriating certain taxes for the 
purpose, an undertaking which had, however, in this time of present 
distress small likelihood of effectual result. 

The course of events indeed in the months which followed this 
historic gathering at Dordrecht was not encouraging to those who 
had thus dared somewhat prematurely to brave the wrath of Philip 
and the vengeance of Alva. Lewis of Nassau had for some time been 
engaged in raising a Huguenot force for the invasion of the southern 
Netherlands. The news of the capture of Brill and Flushing stirred 
him to sudden action. He had collected only a small body of men, 
but, with characteristic impetuosity he now led these across the 
frontier, and, before Alva was aware of his presence in Hainault, had 
captured by surprise Valenciennes and Mons (May 24). It was a 



THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 53 

rash move, for no sooner did the news reach the governor- general 
than he sent his son, Don Frederick of Toledo, at the head of a 
powerful force to expel the invader. Don Frederick quickly made 
himself master of Valenciennes and then proceeded (June 3) to lay 
siege to Mons, where Lewis, in hopes that reUef would reach him, 
prepared for an obstinate defence. These hopes were not without 
foundation, for he knew that, beyond the Rhine, Orange with a 
considerable army was on the point of entering the Netherlands 
from the east, and that the Huguenot leader, Genlis, was leading 
another force from France to his succour. William at the head of 
20,000 German and 3000 Walloon mercenaries actually entered 
Gelderland (July 7), captured Roeremonde and then marched into 
Brabant. Here (July 19) the news reached him of the complete 
defeat and annihilation of the raw levies of Genlis by Toledo's 
veteran troops. Hampered by lack of funds WilHam now, as through- 
out his life, showed himself to be lacking in the higher qualities of 
military leadership. With an ill-paid mercenary force time was a 
factor of primary importance, nevertheless the prince made no effort 
to move from his encampment near Roeremonde for some five weeks. 
Meanwhile his troops got out of hand and committed many excesses, 
and when, on August 27, he set out once more to march westwards, 
he found to his disappointment that there was no popular rising 
in his favour. Louvain and Brussels shut their gates, and though 
Mechlin, Termonde and a few other places surrendered, the prince 
saw^ only too plainly that his advance into Flanders would not bring 
about the relief of Mons. All his plans had gone awry. Alva could 
not be induced to withdraw any portion of the army that w^as 
closely blockading Mons, but contented himself in following Orange 
with a force under his own command while avoiding a general 
action. And then like a thunderclap, September 5, the news of the 
massacre of St Bartholomew was brought to the prince, and he 
knew that the promise of Coligny to conduct 12,000 arquebusiers 
to the succour of Le\\is could not be redeemed. In this emergency 
William saw that he must himself endeavour to raise the siege. He 
accordingly marched from Flanders and, September 11, encamped 
at the village of Harmignies, a short distance from Mons. In the 
night six hundred Spaniards, each of whom to prevent mistakes 
wore a white shirt over his armour, surprised the camp. The prince 
himself was awakened by a little dog that slept in his tent and only 



1 



54 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

narrowly escaped with his Ufe, several hundred of his troops being 
slain by the Camisaders. He was now thoroughly discouraged and 
on the following day retreated first to Mechlin, then to Roeremonde, 
where on September 30 the ill-fated expedition was disbanded. The 
retirement from Harmignies decided the fate of Mons. Favourable 
conditions were granted and Lewis of Nassau, who was ill with 
fever, met with chivalrous treatment and was allowed to return to 
Dillenburg. 

William now found himself faced with something like financial 
.ruin. Mercenary armies are very costly, and by bitter experience 
he had learnt the futility of opposing a half-hearted and badly 
disciplined force to the veteran troops of Alva. He resolved there- 
fore to go in person to Holland to organise and direct the strong 
. movement of revolt, which had found expression in the meeting 
' of the Estates at Dordrecht. His agents had long been busy going 
about from town to town collecting funds in the name of the prince 
and encouraging the people in their resistance to the Inquisition 
,and to foreign tyranny. William's declaration that henceforth he 
intended to live and die in their midst and to devote himself with 
all his powers to the defence of the rights and liberties of the land 
met with willing and vigorous support throughout the greater part 
of Holland, West Friesland and Zeeland ; and contributions for the 
supply of the necessary ways and means began to flow in. It was, 
however, a desperate struggle to which he had pledged himself, and 
to which he was to consecrate without flinching the rest of his life. 
If, however, the prince's resolve was firm, no less so was that of 
Alva. 

Alva had his enemies at the Spanish court, always ready to excite 
distrust against the duke in the mind of the suspicious king. In 
July, 1572, the Duke of Medina-Coeli had been sent from Spain 
to enquire into the state of affairs in the Netherlands; probably 
it was intended that he should take over the administration and 
supersede the governor-general. On his arrival, however, Medina- 
Coeli quickly saw that the difficulties of the situation required a 
stronger hand than his, and he did not attempt to interfere with 
Alva's continued exercise of supreme authority. The governor- 
general, on his side, knew well what was the meaning of this 
mission of Medina-Coeli, and no sooner was the army of Orange 
dispersed than he determined, while the reins of power were still 



THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 55 

in his hands, to visit the rebellious towns of the north with condien 
vengeance. 

At the head of a powerful force , Frederick of Toledo marched 
northwards. Mechlin, which had received Orange, was given over 
for three days to pillage and outrage. Then Zutphen was taken and 
sacked. Xaarden, which had, though without regular defences, dared 
to resist the Spaniards, w^as utterly destroyed and the entire popu- 
lation massacred. Amsterdam, one of the few towns of Holland 
which had remained loyal to the king, served as a basis for further 
operations. Although it was already December and the season was 
unfavourable, Toledo now determined to lay siege to the important 
town of Haarlem. Haarlem was difficult of approach. It was 
protected on two sides by broad sheets of shallow water, the 
Haarlem lake and the estuar\' of the Y, di\dded from one another 
by a narrow neck of land. On another side was a thick wood. It was 
garrisoned by 4000 men, stem Cahdnists, under the resolute 
leadership of Ripperda and Lancelot Brederode. An attempt to 
storm the place (December 21) was beaten off with heavy loss to 
the assailants; so Toledo, despite the inclemency of the weather, 
had to invest the city. Another desperate assault, Januar}' 31, 
disastrously failed, and the siege was turned into a blockade. The 
position, however, of the besiegers was in some respects worse than 
that of the besieged ; and Toledo would have abandoned his task 
in despair had not his father ordered him at all costs to proceed. 
William meanwhile made several efforts to relieve the town. Bodies 
of skaters in the winter, and when the ice disappeared, numbers of 
boats crossed over the Haarlem lake from Leyden and managed to 
carry supplies of food into the town, and resistance might have 
been indefinitely prolonged had not Bossu put a stop to all inter- 
course betw^een Haarlem and the outside world by convoking a 
flotilla of armed vessels from the Y into the lake. Surrender was 
now only a question of time. On July 1 1 , 1 573 , after a relieving force 
of 4000 men, sent b}' Orange, had been utterly defeated, and the 
inhabitants vrere perishing by famine, Toledo gained possession of 
Haarlem. The survivors of the heroic garrison were all butchered, 
and Ripperda and Brederode, their gallant leaders, executed. A 
number of the leading citizens were likewise put to death, but the 
town was spared from pillage on condition of paying a heavy fine. 
The siege had lasted seven months, and the army of Toledo, which 



56 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

had suffered terribly during the winter, is said to have lost twelve 
thousand men. 

Alva in his letters to the king laid great stress on the clemency 
with which he had treated Haarlem. It had been spared the whole- 
sale destruction of Zutphen and Naarden, and the duke hoped that 
by this exhibition of comparative leniency he might induce the 
other rebel towns to open their gates without opposition. He was 
deceived. On July i8 Alkmaar was summoned to surrender, but 
refused. Alva's indignation knew no bounds, and he vowed that 
every man, woman and child in the contumacious town should be 
put to the sword. The threat, however, could not at once be 
executed. Toledo's army, debarred from the sack of Haarlem, became 
mutinous through lack of pay. Until they received the arrears due to 
them, they refused to stir. Not till August 21 was Don Frederick able 
to invest Alkmaar with a force of 16,000 men. The garrison con- 
sisted of some 1300 burghers with 800 troops thrown into the town 
by Sonoy, Orange's lieutenant in North Holland. Two desperate 
assaults were repulsed with heavy loss, and then the Spaniards 
proceeded to blockade the town. Sonoy now, by the orders of the 
prince, gained the consent of the cultivators of the surrounding 
district to the cutting of the dykes. The camps and trenches of the 
besiegers were flooded out ; and (October 8) the siege was raised 
and the army of Don Frederick retired, leaving Alkmaar untaken. 
Within a week another disaster befell the Spanish arms. Between 
Hoorn and Enkhuizen the fleet of Bossu on the Zuyder Zee was 
attacked by the Sea-Beggars and was completely defeated. Bossu 
himself was taken prisoner and was held as a hostage for the safety 
of Ste Aldegonde, who fell into the hands of the Spaniards about 
month later. 

This naval victory, following upon the retreat from Alkmaar, 
strengthened greatly the efforts of Orange and gave fresh life to 
the patriot cause. It likewise marked the end of the six years of 
Alva's blood-stained rule in the Netherlands. Weary and dis- 
appointed, always hampered by lack of funds, angry at the loss of 
the king's confidence and chafing at the evidence of it in the 
presence of Medina-Coeli at his side, the governor-general begged 
that he might be relieved of his functions. His request was granted, 
October 29. The chosen successor was the Grand Commander, 
Don Luis de Requesens, governor of Milan. It was only with much 



THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 57 

reluctance that Requesens, finding the king's command insistent 
and peremptory, accepted the charge. 

The Grand Commander was indeed far from being a suitable 
man for dealing with the difficult situation in the Netherlands, for 
he was a Spanish grandee pure and simple and did not even speak 
French. Even the loyalists received him coolly. He knew nothing 
of the country, and whatever his ability or disposition it was felt 
that he would not be allowed a free hand in his policy or adequate 
means for carrying it out. That his temper was conciliatory was 
quickly shown. An amnesty was proclaimed for political offenders 
except three hundred persons (among these Orange and his 
principal adherents), and pardon to all heretics who abjured their 
errors. He went even further than this by entering into a secret 
exchange of views with William himself through Ste Aldegonde as 
an intermediary, in the hope of finding some common meeting- 
ground for an understanding. But the prince was immovable. 
Unless freedom of worship, the upholding of all ancient charters 
and liberties and the removal of Spaniards and all foreigners from 
any share in the government or administration of the land were 
granted, resistance would be continued to the last. These were 
conditions Requesens had no power even to consider. 

Orange during this time was on his side using all his diplomatic 
ability to gain help for the oppressed Netherlanders from France 
and England. But Charles IX had his own difficulties and was in 
too feeble health (he died May, 1574) to take any decided step, and 
Queen Elizabeth, though she connived at assistance being given 
to the rebel cause on strictly commercial terms, was not willing 
either to show open hostility to Philip or to support subjects in 
revolt against their sovereign. William's position appeared well- 
nigh desperate, for at the opening of the year 1574 his authority 
was only recognised in a few of the towns of Holland and in some 
of the Zeeland islands, and the Spaniards had sent a large force to 
invest Ley den. He had, however, made up his mind to cast in his 
lot with the brave Hollanders and Zeelanders in their gallant 
struggle against overwhelming odds. To identify himself more 
completely with his followers, the prince, October, 1573, openly 
announced his adhesion to Calvinism. There are no grounds for 
doubting his sincerity in taking this step ; it was not an act of pure 
opportunism. His early Catholicism had probably been little more 



58 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

than an outward profession, and as soon as he began to think 

seriously about religious questions, his natural bent had led him 

first to the Lutheran faith of his family, and then to the sterner 

doctrines, which had gained so firm a foothold in the towns of 

r Holland and Zeeland. Nevertheless William, though henceforth 

a consistent Calvinist, was remarkable among his contemporaries 

'^ for the principles of religious toleration he both inculcated and 

I practised. He w^as constitutionally averse to religious persecution 

in any form, and by the zealots of his party he was denounced as 

lukewarm; but throughout his life he upheld the right of the 

individual, who was peaceful and law-abiding, to liberty of opinion 

and freedom of worship. 

The year 1574 opened favourably. By a remarkable feat of arms 
the veteran Spanish commander Mondragon had, October, 1572, 
reconquered several of the Zeeland islands. His men on one 
occasion at ebb-tide marched across the channel which lies 
between South Beveland and the mainland, the water reaching up 
to their necks. The patriot forces had since then recovered much 
of the lost ground, but Middelburg was strongly held, and so long 
as the Spaniards had command of the sea, was the key to the 
possession of Zeeland. On January 29, 1574, the Sea-Beggars 
under Boisot attacked the Spanish fleet near Roemerswaal and 
after a bloody encounter gained a complete victory. The siege of 
Middelburg was now pressed and Mondragon surrendered, 
February 18. The prince at once set to work to create a patriot 
government in the province. Four towns had representatives, 
Middelburg, Zierikzee, Veere and Flushing. William himself 
acquired by purchase the marquisate of Flushing and thus was able 
to exercise a preponderating influence in the Provincial Estates, aU 
of whose members were required to be Calvinists and supporters 
of the rebel cause. 

The investment of Ley den by the Spaniards threatened however, 
now that Haarlem had fallen, to isolate South Holland and Zeeland ; 
and William did not feel himself strong enough to make any serious 
attempt to raise the siege. Lewis of Nassau therefore, with the help 
of French money, set himself to work with his usual enthusiastic 
energy to collect a force in the Rhineland with which to invade the 
Netherlands from the east and effect a diversion. At the head of 
7000 foot and 3000 horse — half-disciplined troops, partly Huguenot 



THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 59 

volunteers, partly German mercenaries — he tried to cross the Meuse 
above Maestricht with the intention of effecting a junction with the 
Prince of Orange. He was accompanied by John and Henry of 
Nassau, his brothers, and Christopher, son of the Elector Palatine. 
He found his course blocked by a Spanish force under the command 
of Sancho d'Avila and Mondragon. The encounter took place on 
the heath of Mook (April 14) and ended in the crushing defeat of 
the invaders. Lewds and his young brother, Henry, and Duke 
Christopher perished, and their army w^as completely scattered. 
The death of his brothers was a great grief to William. Lewis had 
for years been his chief support, and the loss of this dauntless 
champion was indeed a heavy blow to the cause for which he had 
sacrificed his life. He was only thirty-six years of age, while Henry, 
the youngest of the Nassaus, to whom the Prince was deeply 
attached, was but a youth of twenty-four. 

The invasion of Lewis had nevertheless the result of raising the 
siege of Ley den ; but only for a time. After the victory at Mook the 
Spanish troops were free to continue the task of reconquering rebel 
Holland for the king. On May 26 a strong force under Valdez 
advanced to Ley den and completely isolated the town by surrounding 
it with a girdle of forts. The attack came suddenly, and unfortunately 
the place had not been adequately provisioned. So strong was the 
position of the Spaniards that the stadholder did not feel that any 
relieving force that he could send would have any chance of 
breaking through the investing lines and revictualling the garrison. 
In these circumstances he summoned, June i, a meeting of the 
Estates of Holland at Rotterdam and proposed, as a desperate 
resource, that the dykes should be cut and the land submerged, and 
that the light vessels of the Sea-Beggars under Boisot should sail 
over the waters, attack the Spanish forts and force an entrance into 
the town. xAfter considerable opposition the proposal was agreed to 
and the waters were allowed to flow out upon the low-lying fields, 
villages and farms, which lie between the sea, the Rhine, the Waal 
and the Maas. Unfortunately the season was not favourable, and 
though the water reached nearly to the higher land round Leyden 
on which the Spanish redoubts were erected, and by alarming 
Valdez caused him to press the blockade more closely, it was not 
deep enough even for the light-draught vessels, which Boisot had 
gathered together, to make their way to the town. So the month of 



6o THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

August passed and September began. Meanwhile the prince, who 
was the soul of the enterprise, was confined to his sick-bed by a 
violent attack of fever, and the pangs of famine began to be cruelly 
felt within the beleaguered town. A portion of the citizens were 
half-hearted in the struggle, and began to agitate for surrender and 
even sent out emissaries to try to make terms with the Spanish 
commander. But there were within Leyden leaders of iron resolution, 
the heroic Burgomaster Pieter Adriaanzoon van der Werf; the 
commandant of the garrison, Jan van der Does ; Dirk van Bronk- 
horst, Jan van Hout and many others who remained staunch and 
true in face of the appalling agony of a starving population ; men 
who knew the fate in store for them if they fell into the enemy's 
hands and were determined to resist as long as they had strength 
to fight. At last in mid-September faint hopes began to dawn. 
William recovered, and a fierce equinoctial gale driving the flood- 
tide up the rivers gradually deepened the waters up to the very 
dyke on which the entrenchments of the besiegers stood. Urged on 
by Orange, Boisot now made a great effort. Anxiously from the 
towers was the approach of the relieving fleet watched. The town 
was at the very last extremity. The people were dying of hunger 
on every side. Some fierce combats took place as soon as the Sea- 
Beggars, experts at this amphibious warfare, arrived at the outlying 
Spanish forts, but not for long. Alarmed at the rising of the waters 
and fearing that the fleet of Boisot might cut off their escape, the 
Spaniards retreated in the night ; and on the morning of October 3 
the vessels of the relieving force, laden with provisions, entered 
the town. The long-drawn-out agony was over and Leyden saved 
from the fate of Haarlem, just at the moment when further resistance 
had become impossible. Had Leyden fallen the probability is that the 
whole of South Holland would have been conquered, and the revolt 
might have collapsed. In such a narrow escape well might the people 
of the town see an intervention of Providence on their behalf. The 
prince himself hastened to Leyden on the following day, reorgan- 
ised the government of the town and in commemoration of this 
great deliverance founded the University, which was to become in 
the 17th century one of the most famous seats of learning in Europe. 
The successful relief of Leyden was followed by a mutiny of the 
army of Valdez. They were owed long arrears of pay, had endured 
great hardships, and now that they saw themselves deprived of the 



THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 6i 

hope of the pillage of the town, they put their commander and his 
officers under arrest and marched under a leader elected by them- 
selves into Utrecht. Other mutinies occurred in various parts of the 
southern provinces, for Requesens had no funds, and it was useless 
to appeal to Philip, for the Spanish treasury was empty. This state 
of things led to a practical cessation of active hostilities for many 
months ; and Requesens seized the opportunity to open negotia- 
tions with Orange. These were, however, doomed to be fruitless, 
for the king would not hear of any real concessions being made to 
the Protestants. The position of William was equally beset with 
difficulties, politically and financially. In the month following the 
relief of Leyden he even threatened to withdraw from the country 
unless his authority were more fully recognised and adequate 
supplies were furnished for the conduct of the war. The Estates ' 
accordingly, November 12, asked him to assume the title of Regent 1 
or Governor, with ''absolute might, authority and sovereign I 
control" of the affairs of the country. They also voted him an ' 
allowance of 49,000 guilders a month ; but, while thus conferring 
on the man who still claimed to be the ''Stadholder of the king" | 
practically supreme power, the burgher-corporations of the towns 
were very jealous of surrendering in the smallest degree that control 
over taxation which was one of their most valued rights. The exercise 
of authority, however, by the prince from this time forward was 
very great, for he had complete control in military and naval 
matters, and in the general conduct of affairs he held all the admini- 
strative threads in his own hands. He had become indispensable, | 
and in everything but name a sovereign in Holland and Zeeland. | 
The first part of 1575 was marked by a lull in warlike operations, 
and conferences were held at Breda between envoys of Orange and 
Requesens, only to find that there was no common ground of 
agreement. The marriage of the prince (June 24) with Charlotte 
de Bourbon, daughter of the Duke of Montpensier, was a daring 
step which aroused much prejudice against him. The bride, who 
was of the blood-royal of France, had been Abbess of Jouarre, but 
had abjured her vows, run away and become a Calvinist. This was 
bad enough, but the legality of the union was rendered the more 
questionable by the fact that Anne of Saxony was still alive. On all 
sides came protests — from Charlotte's father, from John of Nassau, 
and from Anne's relations in Saxony and Hesse. But William's 



62 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

character was such that opposition only made him more determined 
to carry out his purpose. The wedding was celebrated at Brill with 
Calvinist rites. The union, whether legitimate or not, was un- 
doubtedly one of great happiness. 

Meanwhile the governor- general, unable to obtain any financial 
help from Spain, had managed to persuade the provinces, always 
in dread of the excesses of the mutinous soldiery, to raise a loan of 
1,200,000 guilders to meet their demands for arrears of pay. 
Requesens was thus enabled to put in the late summer a con- 
siderable army into the field and among other successes to gain 
possession of the Zeeland islands, Duiveland and Schouwen. On 
September 27 a force under the command of the veteran Mondragon 
waded across the shallow channels dividing the islands, which fell 
into their hands. Zierikzee, the chief town of Schouwen, made a 
stout resistance, but had at length to surrender (July, 1576). This 
conquest separated South Holland from the rest of Zeeland ; and, as 
Haarlem and Amsterdam were in the hands of the Spaniards, the 
only territory over which the authority of Orange extended was the 
low- lying corner of land between the Rhine and the Maas, of which 
Delft was the centre. 

The situation again appeared well-nigh desperate, and the 
stadholder began to look anxiously round in the hope of obtaining 
foreign assistance. It was to the interest of both France and England 
to assist a movement which distracted the attention and weakened 
the power of Spain. But Henry HI of France was too much 
occupied with civil and religious disturbances in his own country, 
and Elizabeth of England, while receiving with courtesy the envoys 
both of Orange and Requesens, gave evasive replies to both. She 
was jealous of France, and pleased to see the growing embarrassment 
of her enemy Philip, but the Tudor queen had no love either for 
rebels or for Calvinists. While refusing therefore openly to take the 
side of the Hollanders and Zeelanders, she agreed to give them 
secret help ; and no obstacle was placed in the way of the English 
volunteers, who had already since 1572 been enlisting in the Dutch 
service. It was at this time that those English and Scottish Brigades 
were first formed which remained for nearly two centuries in that 
service, and were always to be found in the very forefront of the 
fighting throughout the great war of Liberation. 

On March 4, 1576, Requesens died; and in the considerable 



THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 63 

interval that elapsed before the arrival of his successor, the outlook 
for the p.itriot cause became distinctly brighter. The Estates of 
Holland andZeeland met at Delft (April 25, 1576) ; and the assembly 
was noteworthy for the passing of an Act of Federation. This Act, . 
which was the work of Orange, bound the two provinces together | 
for common action in defence of their rights and liberties and was I 
the first step towards that larger union, which three years later laid | 
the foundations of the Dutch Republic. By this Act sovereign I 
powers were conferred upon William ; he was in the name of the i 
king to exercise all the prerogatives of a ruler. It required all his 
influence to secure the insertion of articles (i) extending a certain 
measure of toleration to all forms of religious worship that were 
not contrary to the Gospel, (2) giving authority to the prince in 
case of need to offer the Protectorate of the federated provinces to 
a foreign prince. Orange knew only too well that Holland and 
Zeeland were not strong enough alone to resist the power of Spain. 
His hopes of securing the support of the other provinces, in which 
Catholics were in the majority, depended, he clearly saw, on the 
numerous adherents to the ancient faith in Holland and Zeeland 
being protected against the persecuting zeal of the dominant 
Calvinism of those provinces. In any case — and this continued to 
be his settled conviction to the end of his life — the actual indepen- 
dence of the whole or any portion of the Netherlands did not seem 
to him to lie within the bounds of practical politics. vThe object for 1 
which he strove was the obtaining of substantial guarantees for the 
maintenance of the ancient charters, which exempted the provinces 
from the presence of foreign officials, foreign tribunals, foreign 
soldiery and arbitrary methods of taxation. As Philip had de- 1 
liberately infringed all those privileges which he had sworn to 
maintain, it was the duty of all patriotic Netherlanders to resist 
his authority, and, if resistance failed to bring redress, to offer the 
sovereignty with the necessary restrictions to some other prince 
willing to accept it on those conditions and powerful enough to 
protect the provinces from Spanish attack. In order to grasp the 
principles which guided William's policy during the next few years 
it is essential to bear in mind (i) that he sought to bring about 
a union of all the Netherland provinces on a basis of toleration, 
(2) that he did not aim at the erection of the Netherlands into 
an independent State. 



64 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

On the death of Requesens the Council of State had assumed 
temporary charge of the administration. There had for some time 
been growing dissatisfaction even amongst the loyalist Catholics of 
the southern provinces at the presence and over-bearing attitude 
of so many Spanish officials and Spanish troops in the land and at 
the severity of the religious persecution. Representations were made 
to the king by the Council of State of the general discontent 
throughout the country, of the deplorable results of the policy of 
force and repression, and urging the withdrawal of the troops, the 
mitigation of the edicts, and the appointment of a member of the 
royal house to the governorship. To these representations and 
requests no answer was sent for months in accordance with Philip's 
habitual dilatoriness in dealing with difficult affairs of State. He 
did, however, actually nominate in April his bastard brother, Don 
John of Austria, the famous victor of Lepanto, as Requesens' 
successor. But Don John, who was then in Italy, had other 
ambitions, and looked with suspicion upon Philip's motives in 
assigning him the thankless task of dealing with the troubles in the 
Low Countries. Instead of hurrying northwards, he first betook 
himself to Madrid where he met with a cold reception. Delay, 
however, so far from troubling Philip, was thoroughly in accordance 
with the whole bent of his character and policy. For six months 
Don John remained in Spain, and it was a half-year during which 
the situation in the Netherlands had been to a very large extent 
transformed. 

The position of Orange and his followers in Holland and Zeeland 
in the spring of 1576 had again darkened. In June the surrender of 
Zierikzee to Mondragon was a heavy blow to the patriot cause, for 
it gave the Spaniards a firm footing in the very heart of the Zeeland 
archipelago and drove a wedge between South Holland and the 
island of Walcheren. This conquest was, however, destined to have 
important results of a very different character from what might 
have been expected. The town had surrendered on favourable 
terms and pillage was forbidden. Baulked of their expected booty, 
the Spanish troops, to whom large arrears of pay were due, 
mutinied. Under their own "eletto" they marched to Aalst, where 
they were joined by other mutineers, and soon a large force was 
collected together, who lived by plunder and were a terror to the 
country. The Council declared them to be outlaws, but the revolted 



THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 65 

soldiery defied its authority and scoffed at its threats. This was a 
moment which, as Orange was quick to perceive, was extremely 
favourable for a vigorous renewal of his efforts to draw together all 
the provinces to take common action in their resistance to Spanish 
tyranny. His agents and envoys in all parts of the Netherlands, but 
especially in Flanders and Brabant, urged his views upon the more 
influential members of the provincial estates and upon leading 
noblemen, like the Duke of Aerschot and other hitherto loyal 
supporters of the government, who were now suspected of wavering. 
His efforts met with a success which a few months earlier would 
have been deemed impossible. The conduct of the Spanish troops, 
and the lack of any central authority to protect the inhabitants 
against their insolence and depredations, had effected a great 
change in public opinion. In Brussels Baron de Heze (a god-child 
of the prince) had been appointed to the command of the troops 
in the pay of the Estates of Brabant. De Heze exerted himself to 
arouse popular opinion in the capital in favour of Orange and 
against the Spaniards. To such an extent was he successful that 
he ventured, Sept. 21, to arrest the whole of the Council of State 
with the exception of the Spanish member Roda, who fled to 
Antwerp. William now entered into direct negotiations with 
Aerschot and other prominent nobles of Flanders and Brabant. He 
took a further step by sending, at the request of the citizens of Ghent, 
a strong armed force to protect the town against the Spanish 
garrison in the citadel. In the absence of any lawful government, 
the States-General were summoned to meet at Brussels on Sep- 
tember 22. Deputies from Brabant, Flanders and Hainault alone 
attended, but in the name of the States- General they nominated 
Aerschot, Viglius and Sasbout as Councillors of State, and 
appointed Aerschot to the command of the forces, with the Count 
of Lalaing as his lieutenant. They then, Sept. 27, approached the 
prince with proposals for forming a union of all the provinces. As 
a preliminary it was agreed that the conditions, which had been 
put forward by William as indispensable — namely, exclusion of ajl 
foreigners from administrative posts, dismissal of foreign troops, 
and religious toleration — should be accepted. The proposals were 
gladly received by William, and Ghent was chosen as the place 
where nine delegates from Holland and Zeeland should confer with 
nine delegates nominated by the States-General as representing the 



E. H. H. 



\ 



66 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

other provinces. They met on October 19. Difficulties arose on two 
points — the recognition to be accorded to Don John of Austria, and 
the principle of non-interference with religious beliefs. Orange 
himself had always been an advocate of toleration, but the repre- 
sentatives of Holland and Zeeland showed an obstinate disinclination 
to allow liberty of Catholic worship within their borders ; and this 
attitude of theirs might, in spite of the prince's efforts, have led to 
a breaking-off of the negotiations, had not an event occurred which 
speedily led to a sinking of differences on the only possible basis, 
that of mutual concession and compromise. 

The citadel of Antwerp was, during this month of October, 
garrisoned by a body of mutinous Spanish troops under the 
command of Sancho d'Avila, the victor of Mook. Champagney, 
the governor, had with him a body of German mercenaries under 
a certain Count Oberstein; and at his request, such was the 
threatening attitude of the Spaniards, the States- General sent 
Havre with a reinforcement of Walloon troops. On Sunday, 
November 4, the garrison, which had been joined by other bands 
of mutineers, turned the guns of the citadel upon the town and 
sallying forth attacked the forces of Champagney. The Germans 
offered but a feeble resistance. Oberstein perished; Champagney 
and Havre took refuge on vessels in the river ; and the Spaniards 
were masters of Antwerp. The scene of massacre, lust and wholesale 
pillage, which followed, left a memory behind it unique in its horror 
even among the excesses of this blood-stained time. The '' Spanish 
Fury," as it was called, spelt the ruin of what, but a short time 
I before, had been the wealthiest and most flourishing commercial 
city in the world. 

The news of this disaster reached the States-General, as they 
were in the act of considering the draft proposals which had been 
submitted to them by the Ghent conference. At the same time 
tidings came that Don John, who had travelled through France in 
disguise, had arrived at Luxemburg. They quickly therefore came 
to a decision to ratify the pact, known as the Pacification of Ghent ^ 
and on November 8 it was signed. The P«a^t«^zbw was really a treaty 
between the Prince of Orange and the Estates of Holland and 
Zeeland on the one hand, and the States-General representing the 
other provinces. It was agreed that the Spanish troops should be 
compelled to leave the Netherlands and that the States- General 



THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 67 

of the whole seventeen pro\'inces, as they were convened at the 
abdication of Charles V, should be called together to decide upon 
the question of religious toleration and other matters of national 
importance. Meanwhile the placards against heresy were suspended, 
and all the illegal measures and sentences of Alva declared null and 
void. His confiscated property was restored to Orange, and his 
position, as stadholder in Holland and Zeeland, acknowledged. Don 
John was informed that he would not be recognised as governor- 
general unless he would consent to dismiss the Spanish troops, 
accept the Pacification of Ghent, and swear to maintain the rights 
and privileges of the Provinces. Negotiations ensued, but for a long 
time to little purpose ; and Don John, who was rather an impetuous 
knight-errant than a statesman and diplomatist, remained during 
the winter months at Namur, angry^ at his reception and chafing at 
the conditions imposed upon him, which he dared not accept 
without permission from the king. In December the States- General 
containing deputies from all the provinces met at Brussels, and in 
Januar}^ the Pacification of Ghent was confirmed, and a new 
compact, to which the name of the Union of Brussels was given, 
was drawn up by a number of influential CathoUcs. This document, 
to which signatures were invited, was intended to give to the 
Pacification of Ghent the sanction of popular support and to be at 
the same time a guarantee for the maintenance of the royal authority 
and the Catholic religion. The Union of Brussels was generally 
approved throughout the southern provinces, and the signatories 
from ever}' class were numbered by thousands. Don John, who was 
at Huy, saw that it was necessary to temporise. He was willing, 
he declared, to dismiss the foreign troops and send them out of the 
countrs^ and to maintain the ancient charters and liberties of the 

mi 

provinces, provided that nothing was done to subvert the king's 
authority or the Catholic faith . Finally , on February 1 2 , a treat}^ called 
" The Perpetual Edict," a most inappropriate name, w^as signed, and 
the States- General acknowledged Don John as governor-general. 
The agreement was principally the work of Aerschot and the loyalist 
Catholic part}', who followed his leadership, and was far from being 
entirely acceptable to Orange. He had no trust in the good faith 
of either Philip or his representative, and, though he recommended 
Holland and Zeeland to acquiesce in the treaty and acknowledge 
Don John as governor-general, it was with the secret resolve to 

5—2 



68 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

keep a close watch upon his every action, and not to brook any 
attempt to interfere with religious liberty in the two provinces, in 
which he exercised almost sovereign power and with whose struggles 
for freedom he had identified himself. 

The undertaking of Don John with regard to the Spanish troops 
was punctually kept. Before the end of April they had all left the 
country; and on May i the new governor-general made his state 
entry into Brussels. It was to outward appearances very brilliant. 
But the hero of Lepanto found himself at once distrusted by the 
Catholic nobles and checkmated by the influence and diplomacy of 
the ever watchful William of Orange. Chafing at his impotence, and 
ill-supported by the king, who sent no reply to his appeals for 
financial help, Don John suddenly left the capital and, placing 
himself at the head of a body of Walloon troops, seized Namur. 
Feeling himself in this stronghold more secure, he tried to bring 
pressure on the States-General to place in his hands wider powers 
and to stand by him in his eflforts to force Orange to submit to the 
authority of the king. His efforts were in vain. William had warned 
the States-General and the nobles of the anti- Spanish party in 
Brabant and Flanders that Don John was not to be trusted, and 
he now pointed to the present attitude of the governor-general, 
as a proof that his suspicions were well-founded. Indeed the eyes 
of all true patriots began to turn to the prince, who had been quietly 
strengthening his position, not only in Holland and Zeeland, where 
he was supreme, but also in Utrecht and Gelderland; and popular 
movements in Brussels and elsewhere took place in his favour. So 
strongly marked was the Orange feeling in the capital that the 
States- General acceded to the general wish that the prince should 
be invited to come in person to Brussels. Confidence was expressed 
by Catholics no less than by Protestants that only under his leader- 
ship could the country be delivered from Spanish tyranny. A 
deputation was sent, bearing the invitation ; but for a while William 
hesitated in giving an affirmative reply. On September 23, however, 
(he made his entry into Brussels amidst general demonstrations of 
i joy and was welcomed as" the Restorer and Defender of the Father- 
I land's liberty." Thus, ten years after he had been declared an out- 
1 law and banished, did the Prince of Orange return in triumph to the 
Uown which had witnessed the execution of Egmont and Hoorn. It 
was the proudest day of his life and the supreme point of his career. 



CHAPTER V 

WILLIAM THE SILENT 

The position of William at Brussels after his triumphant entry, 
September 23, 1577, was by no means an easy one. His main 
support was derived from a self-elected Council of Eighteen, 
containing representatives of the gilds and of the citizens. This 
Council controlled an armed municipal force and was really master 
in the city. In these circumstances the States- General did not 
venture upon any opposition to the popular wishes, in other words 
to William, whose influence with the masses was unbounded. The 
States- General, therefore, under pressure from the Eighteen, in- 
formed Don John, October 8, that they no longer recognised him 
as governor-general; and the Estates of Brabant appointed the 
prince to the office of Ruward or governor of the province. Mean- 
while a fresh factor of disturbance had been introduced into the 
troubled scene. Certain of the Catholic nobles opposed to Spanish 
rule, but suspicious of Orange, had in^dted the twenty year old 
Archduke Matthias, brother of the emperor, to accept the sovereignty 
of the Netherlands. Matthias, w^ho was of an adventurous spirit, 
after some parleying agreed. He accordingly left Vienna secretly, 
and at the end of October arrived in the Netherlands. Not content 
with this counter-stroke, Aerschot went to Ghent to stir up opposition 
to the appointment of William as Ruward of Brabant. The populace 
however in Ghent was Orangist, and, rising in revolt, seized Aerschot 
and a number of other Catholic leaders and threw them into prison. 
They were speedily released, but the breach between the Catholic 
nobles and the Calvinist stadholder of Holland was widened. 
WilHam himself saw in the coming of Matthias a favourable 
opportunit}^ for securing the erection of the Netherlands into a 
constitutional State under the nominal rule of a Habsburg prince. 
By his influence, therefore, the States- General entered into negotia- 
tions with the Archduke; and Matthias finally was recognised 
(December 8) as governor on condition that he accepted the Union 
of Brussels. He was also induced to place the real power in the 



70 WILLIAM THE SILENT 

hands of Orange with the title of Lieutenant- General. Matthias 
made his state entry into Brussels, January i8, 1578. His position 
appeared to be strengthened by a treaty concluded with the English 
queen (January 7) by which Elizabeth promised to send over a body 
of troops and to grant a subsidy to the States, for the repayment of 
which the towns of Middelburg, Bruges and Gravelines were to be 
pledges. 

The news however of the step taken by Matthias had had more 
effect upon Philip II than the despairing appeals of his half-brother. 
A powerful army of tried Spanish and Italian troops under the 
command of Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma, son of the former 
regent Margaret, was sent to Flanders. Farnese was Don John's 
nephew, and they had been brought up together at Madrid, being 
almost of the same age. Already Philip had determined to replace 
Don John, whose brilliance as a leader in the field did not com- 
pensate for his lack of statesmanlike qualities. In Farnese, whether 
by good fortune or deliberate choice, he had at length found a 
consummate general who was to prove himself a match even for 
William the Silent in all the arts of political combination and 
intrigue. At Gembloux, January 31 , Don John and Parma fell upon 
the levies of the States and gained a complete and almost bloodless 
victory. Had Philip supplied his governor-general with the money 
he asked for, Don John might now have conquered the whole of 
the southern Netherlands, but without funds he could achieve 
little. 

Meanwhile all was confusion. The States- General withdrew from 
Brussels to Antwerp ; and William, finding that Matthias was useless, 
began negotiations with France, England and Germany in the 
hope of finding in this emergency some other foreign prince ready 
to brave the wrath of Philip by accepting the suzerainty of the 
Netherlands. The Duke of Anjou, brother of the French king, was 
the favoured candidate of the Catholic party; and William, whose 
one aim was to secure the aid of a powerful protector in the struggle 
against Spain, was ready to accept him. Anjou at the head of an 
army of 15,000 men crossed the frontier at Mons, July 12 ; and, on 
the following August 13, a treaty was agreed upon between him 
and the States-General, by which the French duke, with the title 
of Defender of the Liberties of the Netherlands ^ undertook to help 
the States to expel the Spaniards from the Low Countries. But, to 



WILLIAM THE SILENT 71 

add to the complications of the situation, a German force under the 
command of John Casimir, brother of the Elector Palatine, and in 
the pay of Queen Elizabeth, invaded the hapless pro\dnces from the 
east. The advent of John Casimir was greeted with enthusiasm by 
the Calvinist party ; and it required all the skill and sagacity of the 
Prince of Orange to keep the peace and prevent the rival interests 
from breaking out into open strife in the face of the common enemy. 
But Don John was helpless, his repeated appeals for financial help 
remained unanswered, and, sick at heart and weary of life, he 
contracted a fever and died in his camp at Namur, October i , 1578. 
His successor in the governor-generalship was Alexander of 
Parma, who had now before him a splendid field for the exercise 
of his great abilities. 

The remainder of the year 1578 saw a violent recrudescence of 
religious bitterness. In vain did Orange, who throughout his later 
life was a genuine and earnest advocate of religious toleration, strive 
to the utmost of his powers and with untiring patience to allay the 
suspicions and fears of the zealots. John Casimir at Ghent, in the 
fervour of his fanatical Calvinism, committed acts of violence and 
oppression, which had the very worst effect in the Walloon 
provinces. In this part of the Netherlands Catholicism was 
dominant ; and there had always been in the provinces of Hainault, 
Artois, and in the southern districts generally, a feeling of distrust 
towards Orange. The upholding of the principle of religious tolera- 
tion by a man who had t\vice changed his faith was itself suspect ; 
and Farnese left no means untried for increasing this growing anti- 
Orange feeling among the Catholic nobles. A party was formed, 
which bore the name of "The Malcontents," whose leaders were 
Montigny, Lalaing and La Motte. With these the governor- 
general entered into negotiations, with the result that an alliance 
v^as made between Hainault, Artois, Lille, Douay and Orchies 
(January 6, 1579), called the Union of Arras, for the maintenance of 
the Catholic faith, by which these Walloon pro\dnces and towns 
expressed their readiness to submit to the king on condition that 
he were \^illing to agree to uphold their rights and privileges in 
accordance with the provisions of the Pacification of Ghent. The 
Union of Arras did not as yet mean a complete reconciliation with 
the Spanish sovereign, but it did mean the beginning of a breach 
between the Calvinist north and the Catholic south, which the 



72 WILLIAM THE SILENT 

] statecraft of Parma gradually widened into an impossible chasm. 
Before this took place, Anjou, Matthias and John Casimir had alike 
withdrawn from the scene of anarchic confusion, in which for a 
brief time each had been trying to compass his own ambitious ends 
in selfish indifference to the welfare of the people they were 
proposing to deliver from the Spanish yoke. The opening of the 
year 1579 saw Orange and Parma face to face preparing to measure 
their strength in a grim struggle for the mastery. 

In the very same month as witnessed the signing of the Union of 
Arras, a rival union had been formed in the northern Netherlands, 
which was destined to be much more permanent. The real author 
however of the Union of Utrecht was not Orange, but his brother, 
John of Nassau. In March, 1578, John had been elected Stadholder 
of Gelderland. He, like William, had devoted himself heart and 
soul to the cause of Netherland freedom, but his Calvinism was far 
more pronounced than his brother's. From the moment of his 
acceptance of the stadholdership he set to work to effect a close 
union between Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht with Gelderland and 
the adjoining districts which lay around the Zuyder Zee. It was 
a difficult task, since the eastern provinces were afraid (and not 
unjustly) that its much greater wealth would give Holland pre- 
dominance in the proposed confederation. Nevertheless it was 
accomplished, and an Act of Union was drawn up and signed at 
Utrecht, January 29, 1579, by the representatives of Holland, 
Zeeland, the town and district (sticht) of Utrecht, Gelderland and 
Zutphen, by which they agreed to defend their rights and liberties 
and to resist all foreign intervention in their affairs by common 
action as if they were one province, and to establish and maintain 
freedom of conscience and of worship within their boundaries. 
William does not seem at first to have been altogether pleased with 
his brother's handiwork. He still hoped that a confederation on a 
much wider scale might have been formed, comprising the greater 
part of those who had appended their signatures to the Pacification 
of Ghent. It was not until some months had passed and he saw that 
his dreams of a larger union were not to be realised, that he signed, 
on May 3, the Act of Union drawn up at Utrecht. By this time he 
was well aware that Parma had succeeded in winning over the 
malcontent nobles to accept his terms. On May 19 the Walloon 
provinces, whose representatives had signed the Union of Arras, 



WILLIAM THE SILENT 73 

agreed to acknowledge, with certain nominal reservations, the 
sovereignty of Philiji and to allow only Catholic worship. In fact 
the reconciliation was complete. 

Thus, despite the efforts of Orange, the idea of the federation 
of all the seventeen provinces on national lines became a thing of the 
past, henceforth unattainable. The Netherlands were divided into 
two camps. Gradually in the course of 1580 Overyssel, Drente and 
the greater part of Friesland gave in their adherence to the Union 
of Utrecht, and Groningen and the Ommelanden allied themselves 
with their neighbours. In the rest of the Low Countries all fell away 
and submitted themselves to the king's authority, except Antwerp 
and Breda in Brabant, and Ghent, Bruges and Ypres in Flanders. 
William felt that Parma was constantly gaining ground. Defection 
after defection took place, the most serious being that of George 
Lalaing, Count of Renneberg, the Stadholder of Groningen, 
Negotiations were indeed secretly opened with William himself, 
and the most advantageous and flattering terms offered to him, if 
he would desert the patriot cause. But with him opposition to 
Spain and to Spanish methods of government was a matter of 
principle and strong conviction. He was proof alike against bribery 
and cajolery, even when he perceived, as the year 1580 succeeded 
1579, that he had no staunch friends on whom he could absolutely 
rely, save in the devoted provinces of Holland and Zeeland. 

For things had been going from bad to worse. The excesses and 
cruelties committed by the Calvinists, wherever they found them- 
selves in a position to persecute a Catholic minority, and especially 
the outrages perpetrated at Ghent under the leadership of two 
Calvinist fanatics, De Ryhove and De Hembyze, although they 
were done in direct opposition to the wishes and efforts of Orange, 
always and at all times the champion of toleration, did much to 
discredit him in Flanders and Brabant and to excite bitter indigna- 
tion among the Catholics, who still formed the great majority of 
the population of the Netherlands. William felt himself to be 
month by month losing power. The action he was at last compelled 
to take, in rescuing Ghent from the hands of the ultra- democratic 
Calvinist party and in expelling De Ryhove and De Hembyze, 
caused him to be denounced as "a papist at heart." Indeed the 
bigots of both creeds in that age of intolerance and persecution were 
utterly unable to understand his attitude, and could only attribute 



74 WILLIAM THE SILENT 

it to a lack of any sincere religious belief at all. Farnese, meanwhile, 
whose genius for Machiavellian statesmanship was as remarkable 
as those gifts for leadership in war which entitled him to rank as 
the first general of his time, was a man who never failed to take 
full advantage of the mistakes and weaknesses of his opponents. At 
the head of a veteran force he laid siege in the spring of 1579 to the 
important frontier town of Maestricht. He encountered a desperate 
resistance, worthy of the defence of Haarlem or of Ley den, and 
for four months the garrison held out grimly in the hope of relief. 
But, despite all the efforts of Orange to despatch an adequate force 
to raise the siege, at last (June 29) the town was carried by assault 
and delivered up for three days to the fury of a savage soldiery. By 
the possession of this key to the Meuse, Parma was now able to cut 
off communications between Brabant and Protestant Germany. 
Had he indeed been adequately supported by Philip it is probable 
that at this time all the provinces up to the borders of Holland 
might have been brought into subjection by the Spanish forces. 

The position of William was beset with perils on every side. One 
by one his adherents were deserting him ; even in the provinces of 
Holland and Zeeland he was losing ground. He saw clearly that 
without foreign help the national cause for which he had sacrificed 
everything was doomed. In this emergency he reopened negotia- 
tions with Anjou, not because he had any trust in the French 
prince's capacity or sincerity, but for the simple reason that there 
was no one else to whom he could turn. As heir to the throne of 
France and at this time the favoured suitor of Queen Elizabeth, his 
acceptance of the sovereignty of the Netherlands would secure, so 
Orange calculated, the support both of France and England. It was 
his hope also that the limiting conditions attached to the offer of 
sovereignty would enable him to exercise a strong personal control 
over a man of weak character like Anjou. The Duke's vanity and 
ambition were flattered by the proposal; and on September 19, 
1580, a provisional treaty was signed at Plessis-les-Tours by which 
Anjou accepted the offer that was made to him, and showed himself 
quite ready to agree to any limitations imposed upon his authority, 
since he had not any intention, when once he held the reins of power, 
of observing them. 

The first effect of William's negotiations with Anjou was to 
alienate the Calvinists without gaining over the Catholics. Anjou 



WILLIAM THE SILENT 75 

was suspect to both. The action of the Spanish government, 
however, at this critical juncture did much to restore the credit 
of the prince with all to whom the Spanish tyranny and the memory 
of Alva were abhorrent. Cardinal Granvelle, after fifteen years of 
semi-exile in Italy, had lately been summoned to Madrid to become 
chief adviser to the king. Granvelle spared no pains to impress upon 
Philip the necessity of getting rid of Orange as the chief obstacle 
to the pacification of the Netherlands, and advised that a price 
should be placed upon his life. "The very fear of it \Nill paralyse or 
kill him " was the opinion of the cardinal, who ought to have had 
a better understanding of the temper and character of his old 
adversary. Accordingly at Maestricht, March 15, 1581, "a ban and 
edict in form of proscription" was published against the prince, 
who was denounced as "a traitor and miscreant, an enemy of 
ourselves and of our country" ; and all and every were empowered 
"to seize the person and goods of this William of Nassau, as enemy 
of the human race." A solemn promise was also made "to anyone 
who has the heart to free us of this pest, and who will deliver him 
dead or alive, or take his life, the sum of 25,000 crowns in gold or 
in estates for himself and his heirs ; and we will pardon him any 
crimes of which he has been guilty, and give him a patent of nobility, 
if he be not noble." It is a document which, however abhorrent or 
loathsome it may appear to us, was characteristic of the age in which 
it was promulgated and in accordance with the ideas of that cruel 
time. The ban was a declaration of war to the knife, and as such it 
was received and answered. 

In reply to the ban the prince at the close of the year (December 
13) published a very lengthy defence of his life and actions, the 
famous Apology. To William himself is undoubtedly due the 
material which the document embodies and the argument it 
contains, but it was almost certainly not written by him, but by his 
chaplain, Pierre L'Oyseleur, Seigneur de Villiers, to whom it owes 
its rather ponderous prolixity and redundant verbiage. Historically 
it is of very considerable value, though the facts are not always to 
be relied upon as strictly accurate. The Apology was translated into 
several languages and distributed to the leading personages in every 
neighbouring country, and made a deep impression on men's minds. 

The combined eflfect of xh&Ban and the ^po/ogy was to strengthen 
William's position in all the provinces where the patriot party still 



76 WILLIAM THE SILENT 

held the upper hand ; and he was not slow to take advantage of the 
strong anti- Spanish feeling which was aroused. Its intensity was 
shown by the solemn Act of Abjuration, July 26, 1581, by which 
the provinces of Brabant, Flanders, Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht and 
Gelderland renounced their allegiance to Philip II on the ground 
of his tyranny and misrule. But after signing this Act it never seems 
to have occurred to the prince or to the representatives of the 
provinces, that these now derelict territories could remain without 
a personal sovereign. Orange used all his influence and persuasive- 
ness to induce them to accept Anjou. Anjou, as we have seen, had 
already agreed to the conditions under which he should, when 
invited, become ''prince and lord" of the Netherlands. In the 
autumn of 1581 the position was an ambiguous one. The States- 
General claimed that, after the abjuration of Philip, the sovereignty 
of the provinces had reverted to them, as the common repre- 
sentative of a group of provinces that were now sovereign in their 
own right, and that the conferring of that sovereignty on another 
overlord was their prerogative. The position of Orange was peculiar, 
for de facto under one title or another he exercised the chief authority 
in each one of the rebel provinces, but in the name of the States- 
General, instead of the king. His influence indeed was so great as 
to over-shadow that of the States-General, but great as it was, it 
had to be exerted to the utmost before that body could be induced 
to accept a man of Anjou 's despicable and untrustworthy character 
as their new ruler. William however had committed himself to the 
candidature of the duke, through lack of any fitter choice ; and at 
last both the States- General and the several provincial Estates 
(Holland and Zeeland excepted) agreed to confer the sovereignty 
upon the French prince subject to the conditions of the treaty of 
Plessis-les-Tours . 

William himself exercised the powers with which Holland and 
Zeeland had invested him in the name of the king, whose stad- 
holder he was, even when waging war against him. After the 
Abjuration this pretence could no longer be maintained. The 
Estates of Holland and Zeeland had indeed petitioned Orange to 
become their count, but he refused the title, fearing to give 
umbrage to Anjou. Finding, however, the two provinces resolute 
in their opposition to the Valois prince, he consented, July 24, 
1 58 1, to exercise provisionally, as if he were count, the powers of 



WILLIAM THE SILENT 77 

**high supremacy," which had already been conferred upon him. 
Meanwhile Anjou was dallying in England, but on receiving 
through Ste Aldegonde an intimation that the States could brook 
no further delay, he set sail and landed at Flushing. Lord Leicester 
and a brilliant English escort accompanied him ; and Elizabeth asked 
the States to receive her suitor as **her own self." At Antwerp, 
where he took up his residence, Anjou was (February 19) solemnly 
invested with the duchy of Brabant, and received the homage of 
his new subjects. He was far from popular, and William remained 
at his side to give him support and counsel. On March 18 (Anjou's 
birthday) an untoward event occurred, which threatened to have 
most disastrous consequences. As Orange was leaving the dinner- 
table, a young Biscayan, Juan Jaureguy by name, attempted his 
assassination, by firing a pistol at him. The ball entered the head 
by the right ear and passed through the palate. Jaureguy was 
instantly killed and it was afterwards found that he had, for the 
sake of the reward, been instigated to the deed by his master, a 
merchant named Caspar Anastro. Anjou, who was at first suspected 
of being accessory to the crime, was thus exculpated. It was a 
terrible wound and William's life was for some time in great danger ; 
but by the assiduous care of his physicians and nurses he very 
slowly recovered, and was strong enough, on May 2, to attend a 
solemn service of thanksgiving. The shock of the event and the 
long weeks of anxiety were however too heavy a strain upon his 
wife, Charlotte de Bourbon, who had recently given birth to their 
sixth daughter. Her death, on May 5, was deeply grieved by the 
prince, for Charlotte had been a most devoted helpmeet and 
adviser to him throughout the anxious years of their married life. 
During the whole of the summer and autumn William remained 
at Antwerp, patiently trying to smooth away the difficulties 
caused by the dislike and suspicion felt by the Netherlanders for 
the man whom they were asked to recognise as their sovereign. It 
was an arduous task, but William, at the cost of his own popularity, 
succeeded in getting the duke acknowledged in July as Lord of 
Friesland and Duke of Gelderland, and in August Anjou was 
solemnly installed at Bruges, as Count of Flanders. Meanwhile he 
was planning, with the help of the large French force which Anjou 
had undertaken to bring into the Netherlands, to take the offensive 
against Parma. The truth is that he and Anjou were really playing 



78 WILLIAM THE SILENT 

at cross-purposes. Orange wished Anjou to be the roi-faineant of 
a United Netherland state of which he himself should be the real 
ruler, but Anjou had no intention of being treated as a second 
Matthias. He secretly determined to make himself master of 
Antwerp by a sudden attack and, this achieved, to proceed to seize 
by force of arms some of the other principal cities and to make 
himself sovereign in reality as well as in name. He resented his 
[dependence upon Orange and was resolved to rid himself of it. 
With shameless treachery in the early morning of January 17, 1583, 
he paid a visit to the prince in Antwerp, and, with the object of 
gaining possession of his person, tried to persuade him to attend 
a review of the French regiments who were encamped outside the 
town. The suspicions of William had however been aroused, and 
he pleaded some excuse for declining the invitation. At midday 
some thousands of Anjou 's troops rushed into the cit)^ at the dinner- 
hour with loud cries of " Ville gagnee ! Tue ! Tue ! " But the citizens 
flew to arms; barricades were erected; and finally the French 
were driven out with heavy loss, leaving some 1500 prisoners in the 
hands of the town-guard. Many French nobles perished, and the 

("French Fury," as it was called, was an ignominious and ghastly 
failure. Indignation was wide and deep throughout the provinces ; 
and William's efforts to calm the excitement and patch up some fresh 
agreement with the false Valois, though for the moment partially 
successful, only added to his own growing unpopularity. 

The prince in fact was so wedded to the idea that the only hope 
for the provinces lay in securing French aid that he seemed unable 
to convince himself that Anjou after this act of base treachery was 
impossible. His continued support of the duke only served to 
alienate the people of Brabant and Flanders. The Protestants hated 
the thought of having as their sovereign a prince who was a Catholic 
and whose mother and brothers were looked upon by them as the 
authors of the massacre of St Bartholomew. The Catholics, cajoled 
by Parma's fair words, and alarmed by the steady progress of his 
arms, were already inclining to return to their old allegiance. The 
marriage of Orange, April 7, 1583, to Louise, daughter of the 
famous Huguenot leader Admiral Coligny, and widow of the Sieur 
de Teligny, added to the feelings of distrust and hostility he had 
already aroused, for the bride was a Frenchwoman and both her 
father and husband had perished on the fatal St Bartholomew's day. 



WILLIAM THE SILENT 79 

Finding himself exposed to insult, and his life ever in danger, 
William, at the end of July, left Antwerp and took up his 
residence again at Delft in the midst of his faithful Hollanders. 
They, too, disliked his French proclivities, but his alliance with 
Louise de Teligny seemed to be an additional pledge to these 
strong Calvinists of his religious sincerity. 

Meanwhile Anjou had already returned to France; and Parma 
had now a freer field for his advance northwards and, though sorely 
hampered by lack of funds, was rapidly taking town after town. In 
the spring of 1584 he took Ypres and Bruges, and a strong party 
in Ghent was in traitorous correspondence with him. Many nobles 
had fallen away from the patriot cause, among them William's 
brother-in-law. Count van den Berg, who had succeeded John of 
Nassau as Stadholder of Gelderland. The hold of Orange upon 
Brabant and the Scheldt was, however, still ensured by the 
possession of Antwerp, of which strongly fortified town the trusty 
Ste Aldegonde was governor. 

Meanwhile the prince, who was still striving hard to persuade 
the provinces that were hostile to Spanish rule that their only hope 
lay in obtaining aid from France through Anjou, was living at the 
old convent of St Agatha, afterwards known as the Prinsenhof at 
Delft. His manner of life was of the most modest and homely kind, 
just like that of an ordinary Dutch burgher. He was in fact deeply 
in debt, terribly worried with the outward aspect of things, and his 
position became one of growing difficulty, for on June 10, 1584, the 
miserable Anjou died, and the policy on which he had for so long 
expended his best efforts was wrecked. Even his own recognition 
as Count of Holland and Zeeland had led to endless negotiations 
between the Estates and the various town councils which claimed 
to have a voice in the matter; and in July, 1584, he had, though 
provisionally exercising sovereign authority, not yet received formal 
homage. And all this time, in addition to the other cares that weighed 
heavily upon him, there was the continual dread of assassination. 
Ever since the failure of the attempt of Jaureguy, there had been 
a constant succession of plots against the life of the rebel leader 
and heretic at the instigation of the Spanish government, and with 
the knowledge of Parma. Religious fanaticism, loyalty to the 
legitimate sovereign, together with the more sordid motive of 
pecuniary reward, made many eager to undertake the murderous 



8o WILLIAM THE SILENT 

commission. It was made the easier from the fact that the prince 
always refused to surround himself with guards or to take any 
special precautions, and was always easy of access. Many schemes 
and proposed attempts came to nothing either through the vigilance 
of William's spies or through the lack of courage of the would-be 
assassins. A youth named Balthazar Gerard had however become 
obsessed with the conviction that he had a special mission to 
accomplish the deed in which Jaureguy had failed, and he devoted 
himself to the task of ridding the world of one whom he looked upon 
as the arch-enemy of God and the king. Under the false name of 
Francis Guyon he made his way to Delft, pretended to be a 
zealous Calvinist flying from persecution, and went about begging 
for alms. The prince, even in his poverty always charitable, hearing 
of his needy condition sent to the man a present of twelve crowns. 
With this gift Gerard bought a pair of pistols and on July lo, 
I 1584, having managed on some pretext to gain admittance to the 
' Prinsenhof , he concealed himself in a dark corner by the stairs just 
opposite the door of the room where William and his family were 
dining. As the prince, accompanied by his wife, three of his 
daughters and one of his sisters, came out and was approaching the 
staircase, the assassin darted forward and fired two bullets into his 
breast. The wound was mortal; William fell to the ground and 
speedily expired. Tradition says that, as he fell, he exclaimed in 
French: *'My God, have pity on my soul! My God, have pity on 
this poor people ! " But an examination of contemporary records of 
the murder throws considerable doubt on the statement that 
such words were uttered. The nature of the wound was such that 
the probability is that intelligible speech was impossible. 

Balthazar Gerard gloried in his deed, and bore the excruciating 
tortures which were inflicted upon him with almost superhuman 
patience and courage. He looked upon himself as a martyr in a holy 
cause, and as such he was regarded by Catholic public opinion. His 
deed was praised both by Granvelle and Parma, and Philip 
bestowed a patent of nobility on his family, and exempted them 
from taxation. 

In Holland there was deep and general grief at the tragic ending 
of the great leader, who had for so many years been the fearless and 
indefatigable champion of their resistance to civil and religious 
tyranny. He was accorded a public funeral and buried with great 



WILLIAM THE SILENT 8i 

pomp in the Nieuwe Kerk at Delft, where a stately memorial, 
recording his many high qualities and services, was erected to his 
memory. 

William of Orange was but fifty-one years of age when his life 
was thus prematurely ended, and though he had been much aged 
by the cares and anxieties of a crushing responsibility, his physicians 
declared that at the time of his death he was perfectly healthy and 
that he might have been spared to carry on his work for many years, 
had he escaped the bullets of the assassin. But it was not to be. It 
is possible that he should be reckoned in the number of those whose 
manner of death sets the seal to a life-work of continuous self- 
sacrifice. The title of ''Father of his Country," which was.; 
affectionately given to him by Hollanders of every class, was never I 
more deservedly bestowed, for it was in the Holland that his ' 
exertions had freed and that he had made the impregnable fortress 
of the resistance to Spain that he ever felt more at home than 
anywhere else. It was in the midst of his own people that he laid 
down the life that had been consecrated to their cause. As a general 1 
he had never been successful. As a statesman he had failed to ' 
accomplish that union of the Netherlands, north and south, which 
at one triumphant moment had seemed to be well-nigh realised ( 
by the Pacification of Ghent. But he had by the spirit that he had j 
aroused in Holland and its sister province of Zeeland created a | 
barrier against Spanish domination in the northern Netherlands / 
which was not to be broken down. 



£. H. H. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

At the moment of the assassination of William the Silent it might 
well have seemed to an impartial observer that the restoration of 
the authority of the Spanish king over the whole of the Netherlands 
was only a question of time. The military skill and the statecraft 
of Alexander Farnese were making slow but sure progress in the 
reconquest of Flanders and Brabant. Despite the miserable inade- 
quacy of the financial support he received from Spain, the governor- 
general, at the head of a numerically small but thoroughly 
efficient and well-disciplined army, was capturing town after town. 
In 1583 Dunkirk, Nieuport, Lindhoven, Steenbergen, Zutphen 
and Sas-van-Gent fell; in the spring of 1584 Ypres and Bruges 
were already in Spanish hands, and on the very day of William's 
death the fort of Liefkenshoek on the Scheldt, one of the outlying 
defences of Antwerp, was taken by assault. In August Dender- 
monde, in September Ghent, surrendered. All West Flanders, 
except the sea-ports of Ostend and Sluis, had in the early autumn of 
1584 been reduced to the obedience of the king. The campaign of 
the following year was to be even more successful. Brussels, the 
seat of government, was compelled by starvation to capitulate, 
March 10; Mechlin was taken, luly 19; and finally Antvi^firp, after 
a memorable siege, in which Parma displayed masterly skill and 
resource, passed once more into the possession of the Spaniards. 
1 The fall of this great town was a very heavy blow to the patriot 
j cause, and it was likewise the ruin of Antwerp itself. A very large 
part of its most enterprising inhabitants left their homes rather than 
abjure their religious faith and took refuge in Holland and Zeeland, 
or fled across the Rhine into Germany. Access to the sea down the 
Scheldt was closed by the fleets of the Sea Beggars, and the commerce 
and industry of the first commercial port of western Europe passed 
to Amsterdam and Middelburg. 

Meanwhile there had been no signs of weakness or of yielding 
on the part of the sturdy burghers of Holland and Zeeland. On the 



THE BEGINNINGS OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 83 

fatal July 10, 1584, the Estates of Holland were in session at Delft. 
They at once took energetic action under the able leadership of 
Paul Buys, Advocate of Holland, and John van Oldenbarneveldt, 
Pensionary of Rotterdam. They passed a resolution ** to uphold the 
good cause with God's help without sparing gold or blood." 
Despatches were at once sent to the Estates of the other provinces, 
to the town councils and to the military and naval commanders, 
affirming their own determined attitude and exhorting all those 
who had accepted the leadership of the murdered Prince of Orange 
*'to bear themselves manfully and piously without abatement of 
zeal on account of the aforesaid misfortune." Their calm courage 
at such a moment of crisis reassured men's minds. There was no 
panic. Steps were at once taken for carrying on the government in 
Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht. Stimulated by the example of 
Holland, the States-General likewise took prompt action. On 
August 1 8 a Council of State was appointed to exercise provisionally 
the executive powers of sovereignty, consisting of eighteen members, 
four from Holland, three each from Zeeland and Friesland, two 
from Utrecht and six from Brabant and Flanders. Of this body 
Maurice of Nassau, William's seventeen year-old son, was nominated 
first Councillor, and a pension of 30,000 guilders per annum was 
granted him. At the same time Louise de Coligny was invited to 
take up her residence in Holland and suitable provision was made 
for her. William Lewis, son of Count John of Nassau, was elected 
Stadholder of Friesland. Count Nieuwenaar was Stadholder of 
Gelderland and shortly afterwards also of Utrecht and Overyssel. 
Owing to the youth of Maurice the question as to whether he should 
become Count of Holland and Zeeland or be elected Stadholder 
was left in abeyance until it should be settled to which of two foreign 
rulers the sovereignty of the provinces, now that Anjou was dead, 
should be offered. 

In the revolted provinces the responsible leaders were at this 
time practically unanimous in their opinion that any attempt on 
their part to carry on the struggle against the power of Spain 
without foreign assistance was hopeless ; and it was held that such 
assistance could only be obtained by following in the footsteps of 
William and offering to confer the overlordship of the provinces 
on another sovereign in the place of Philip II. There were but two 
possible candidates, Henry III of France and Elizabeth of England. 

6—2 



84 THE BEGINNINGS OF 

There were objections to both, but the rapid successes of Parma 
made it necessary to take action. The partisans of a French alUance 
were in the majority, despite the efforts of a strong opposition 
headed by Paul Buys; and an embassy (January, 1585) was des- 
patched to Paris to offer conditionally to the French king the 
Protectorship of Holland and Zeeland and sovereignty over the 
other provinces. The negotiations went on for a couple of months, 
but Henry III finally declined the offer. Another embassy was sent, 
July, 1585, to England, but Elizabeth refused absolutely to accept 
the sovereignty. She however was not averse to the proposal that 
she should despatch a body of troops to the armed assistance of the 
provinces, provided that adequate guarantees were given for the 
outlay. She was afraid of Philip II and, though she had no love for 
men who were rebels to their lawful sovereign, was quite willing 
to use them for her own ends. Her motives therefore were mixed 
and purely self-interested ; nevertheless it is doubtful if the negotia- 
tions would have led to any definite result, had not the news of the 
fall of Antwerp made both parties feel that this was no time for 
haggling or procrastination. Elizabeth therefore promised to send 
at once 6000 troops under the command of a ''gentleman of 
quality," who should bear the title of governor-general. He was 
to co-operate with the Council of State (on which two Englishmen 
were to sit) in restoring order and in maintaining and defending 
the ancient rights and privileges of the provinces. The governor- 
general and all other officials were to take an oath of fealty both 
to the States- General and to the queen. The towns of Flushing 
and Brill with the fort of Rammekens were to be handed over in 
pledge to Elizabeth for the repayment of expenses and received 
English garrisons. They were known as "the cautionary towns.'' 

At the end of October the States were informed that the choice 
of the queen had fallen upon her favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl 
of Leicester, and that he would shortlv set out for the Netherlands. 
Holland and Zeeland, ever jealous of foreign interference with their 
rights and privileges, resolved now to forestall the arrival of the 
English governor-general by appointing Maurice of Nassau, with 
the title of ''Excellency," to the offices of Stadholder and Admiral 
and Captain-General of both provinces ; and the Count of Hohenlo 
was nominated (Maurice being still little more than a boy) to the 
actual command of the State's forces. Leicester set sail from Harwich 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 85 

accompanied by a fleet of fifty vessels and landed at Flushing on 
December 19. He met everywhere with an enthusiastic reception. 
The States- General were eager to confer large powers upon him. 
Practically he was invested with the same authority as the former 
regent, Mary of Hungary, with the reservation that the States- 
General and the Provincial Estates should meet at their own 
instance, that the present stadholders should continue in office, and 
that appointments to vacant offices should be made from two or 
three persons nominated by the Provincial Estates. A new Council 
of State was created which, as previously agreed, included two 
Englishmen. On February 4, 1586, Leicester's government was 
solemnly inaugurated in the presence of Maurice of Nassau and the 
States- General, and he accepted the title of " Excellency." Elizabeth 
on hearing this was very angry and even threatened to recall 
Leicester, and she sent Lord Heneage to express both to the States- 
General and the governor-general her grave displeasure at what 
had taken place. She bade Leicester restrict himself to the functions 
that she had assigned to him, and it was not until July that she was 
sufficiently appeased to allow him to be addressed as "Excellency." 
All this was galling to Leicester's pride and ambition, and did 
not tend to improve his relations with the States. An English 
governor would in any case have had a difficult task, and Leicester 
had neither tact nor capacity as a statesman, and no pretensions as 
a military leader. He possessed no knowledge of the institutions of 
the country or the character of the people, and was ignorant of 
the Dutch language. The measures he took and the arbitrary way 
in which he tried to enforce them, soon brought him face to face 
with the stubborn resistance of the Estates of Holland under the 
leadership of Oldenbarneveldt. In April, 1586, he issued a very 
stringent placard forbidding all traffic with the enemy's lands and 
more especially the supplying of the enemy with grain. He meant 
it well, for he had been informed that the cutting-off of this 
commerce, which he regarded as illicit, would deprive the Spaniards 
of the necessaries of life, and Parma's position would become 
desperate. This carrying trade had, however, for long been a source 
of much profit to the merchants and shipowners of Holland and 
Zeeland ; indeed it supplied no small part of the resources by which 
those two provinces had equipped the fleets and troops by which 
they had defended themselves against the eflForts of the Spanish 



86 THE BEGINNINGS OF 

king. Two years before this the States- General had tried to place 
an embargo on the traffic in grain, but the powerful town-council 
of Amsterdam had refused obedience and the Estates of Holland 
supported them in their action. The deputies of the inland 
provinces, which had suffered most from the Spanish armies, were 
jealous of the prosperity of the maritime States, and regarded this 
trade with the Spaniard as being carried on to their injury. But 
Holland and Zeeland supplied the funds without which resistance 
would long since have been impossible, and they claimed moreover, 
as sovereign provinces, the right to regulate their trade affairs. The 
edict remained a dead-letter, for there was no power to enforce it. 

The governor made a still greater mistake when, in his annoyance 
at the opposition of the Hollanders, he courted the democratic anti- 
Holland party in Utrecht, which had as its leader the ultra-Calvinist 
stadholder, Nieuwenaar, and caused one of his confidants, a 
Brabanter, Gerard Prounick, surnamed Deventer, to be elected 
burgomaster of Utrecht, although as a foreigner he was dis- 
qualified from holding that office. An even more arbitrary act was 
his creation of a Chamber of Finance armed with inquisitorial 
powers, thus invading the rights of the Provincial Estates and 
depriving the Council of State of one of its most important 
functions. To make matters worse, he appointed Nieuwenaar to 
preside over the new Chamber, w4th a Brabanter, Jacques Reingoud, 
as treasurer-general, and a Fleming, Daniel de Burchgrave, as 
auditor. The Estates of Holland, under the guidance of Olden- 
barneveldt, prepared themselves to resist stubbornly this attempt 
to thrust upon them a new tyranny. 

As a military leader Leicester was quite unfitted to oppose 
successfully such a general as Parma. Both commanders were in 
truth much hampered by the preparations that were being made 
by Philip for the invasion of England. The king could spare Parma 
but little money for the pay of his troops, and his orders were that 
the Spanish forces in the Netherlands should be held in reserve 
and readiness for embarkation, as soon as the Great Armada should 
hold command of the Channel. England was the first objective. 
When its conquest was accomplished that of the rebel provinces 
would speedily follow. On the other hand Elizabeth, always 
niggardly, was little disposed in face of the threatened danger to 
dissipate her resources by any needless expenditure. Leicester 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 87 

therefore found himself at the head of far too small a force to deal 
any effective blows at the enemy. He succeeded in capturing 
Doesburg, but failed to take Zutphen. It was in a gallant ejffort to 
prevent a Spanish convoy from entering that town that Sir Philip 
Sidney met his death at the combat of Warnsfeld (Sept. 22, 1586). 
An important fort facing Zutphen was however stormed, and here 
Leicester left Sir Robert Yorke with a strong garrison, and at the 
same time sent Sir William Stanley with 1200 men to be governor 
of Deventer. These appointments gave rise to much criticism that 
proved later to be fully justified, for both these officers were 
Catholics and had formerly been in the Spanish service. Leicester 
had also taken other steps that were ill-judged. West Friesland had 
for many years been united to Holland and was known as the 
North-Quarter. The governor-general, however, appointed Sonoy 
Stadholder of West Friesland, and was thus infringing the rights 
and jurisdiction of Maurice of Nassau. Maurice also held the post 
of Admiral- General of Holland and Zeeland, but Leicester took it 
upon himself to create three distinct Admiralty Colleges, those of 
Holland, Zeeland, and the North-Quarter, thus further dividing 
authority in a land where greater unity was the chief thing to be 
aimed at. Leicester was equally unwise in the part he took in regard 
to religious matters. Oldenbarneveldt, Paul Buys and the great 
majority of burgher-regents in Holland belonged to the moderate 
or, as it was called, the *' libertine" party, to which William the 
Silent had adhered and whose principles of toleration he had strongly 
upheld. Leicester, largely influenced by spite against Oldenbarne- 
veldt and the Hollanders for their opposition to his edict about 
trade with the enemy and to his appointment of Sonoy, threw 
himself into the arms of the extreme Calvinists, who were at heart 
as fanatical persecutors as the Spanish inquisitors themselves. 
These ''precisian" zealots held, by the governor-general's per- 
mission and under his protection, a synod at Dort, June, 1586, and 
endeavoured to organise the Reformed Church in accordance with 
their strict principles of exclusiveness. 

By this series of maladroit acts Leicester had made himself so 
unpopular and distrusted in Holland that the Estates of that 
predominant province lost no opportunity of inflicting rebuff^s upon 
him. Stung by the opposition he met and weary of a thankless task, 
the governor determined at the end of November to pay a visit 



88 THE BEGINNINGS OF 

to England. The Council of State was left in charge of the adminis- 
tration during his absence. 

His departure had the very important effect of bringing the 
question of State-rights acutely to the front. The dislike and 
distrust felt by the Hollanders towards the English governor- 
general was greatly increased by the treachery of Yorke and 
Stanley, who delivered the fort at Zutphen and the town of Deventer, 
with the defence of which they had been charged, into the hands 
of the Spaniards. The town of Gelder and the fort at Wouw were 
likewise betrayed, and there can be small doubt that, had Parma at 
this time been able to take advantage of the dissensions in the ranks 
of his adversaries, he would have met with little effectual resistance 
to his arms. His whole attention was, however, centred in prepara- 
tions for the proposed invasion of England. Leicester had no sooner 
left the countr}^ than the Estates of Holland, under the strong 
leadership of Oldenbarneveldt, took measures to assert their right 
to regulate their own affairs, independently of the Council of State. 
A levy of troops was made (in the pay of the province of Holland), 
who were required to take an oath to the Provincial Estates and the 
stadholder. To Maurice the title of "Prince " was given ; and Sonoy 
in the North-Quarter and all the commanders of fortified places were 
compelledtoplacethemselvesunder his orders. The States- General, 
in which the influence of Holland and its chief representative, 
Oldenbarneveldt, was overpoweringly great, upheld the Provincial 
Estates in the measures they were taking. As a result of their 
action the trade restrictions were practically repealed, the Council 
of State was reconstituted, and a strong indictment of Leicester's 
conduct and administration was drawn up in the name of the States- 
General and forwarded to the absent governor in England. 

Elizabeth was indignant at the language of this document, but 
at this particular time the dangers which were threatening her 
throne and people were too serious for her to take any steps to 
alienate the States. It was her obvious policy to support them in 
their resistance, and to keep, if possible, Parma's forces occupied 
in the Netherlands. Accordingly Leicester returned to his post, 
July 1587, but in an altogether wrong spirit. He knew that he had 
a strong body of partisans in Utrecht, Friesland and elsewhere, for 
he had posed as the friend of the people's rights against the nobles 
and those burgher-aristocracies in the cities in whose hands all real 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 89 

power rested, and by his attitude in religious matters he had won 
for himself the support of the Calvinist preachers. His agents, 
Deventer in Utrecht, Aysma in Friesland and Sonoy in the North- 
Quarter, were able men, who could count on the help of the 
democracy, whom they flattered. So Leicester came back with the 
determination to override the opposition of the Estates of Holland 
and compel their submission to his will. But he found that he only 
succeeded in making that opposition more resolute. His attempts 
to overthrow the supremacy of the "regents" in Amsterdam, 
Ley den, Enkhuizen and other towns were complete failures. 
Oldenbarneveldt and Maurice were supreme in Holland and 
Zeeland ; and the power of the purse gave to Holland a controlling 
voice in the States-General. The position of Leicester was shaken 
also by his inability to relieve Sluis, which important seaport fell 
after a long siege into Parma's hands, August 5. Its capture was 
attributed by rumour, which in this case had no foundation, to the 
treachery of the English governor and garrison. Moreover it was 
discovered that for some months secret peace negotiations had been 
passing between the English government and Parma; and this 
aroused violent suspicions that the Netherlands were merely being 
used as pawns in English policy, and alienated from the governor- 
general the sympathy of the preachers, who had been his strongest 
supporters. Humiliated and broken in spirit, Leicester, after many 
bickerings and recriminations, finally left the Netherlands (December 
10), though his formal resignation of his post did not reach the 
States- General until the following April. Lord Willoughby was 
placed in command of the English troops. 

The year 1588 was the beginning of a decade full of fate for\ 
the Dutch Republic. The departure of Leicester left the seven ^ 
provinces of the Union of Utrecht weak, divided, torn by 
factions, without allies, the country to the east of the Yssel and 
to the south of the Scheldt and the Waal already in the hands 
of the enemy. Moreover the armed forces of that enemy were far 
stronger than their own and under the command of a consummate 
general. But this was the year of the Spanish Armada, and Parma's 
offensive operations were, by the strictest orders from Madrid, 
otherwise directed. And Elizabeth on her side, though highly 
offended at the treatment which her favourite, Leicester, had 
received from the Hollanders, was too astute to quarrel at such a 



90 THE BEGINNINGS OF 

moment with a people whose ships kept a strict blockade in the 
Scheldt and before the Flemish harbours. Thus a respite was 
obtained for the States at this critical time, which was turned to 
good account and was of vital import for their constitutional 
development. The Leicestrian period, despite its record of in- 
competence and failure, had however the distinction of being the 
period which for good or for evil gave birth to the republic of the 
United Netherlands, as we know it in history. The curious, 
amorphous, hydra-headed system of government, which was to 
subsist for some two centuries, was in its origin the direct result of 
the confused welter of conflicting forces, which was the legacy of 
Leicester's rule. As a preliminary to a right understanding of the 
political system, which was now, more by accidental force of 
circumstances than by design, developing into a permanent con- 
stitution, it will be necessary to trace the events of the years which 
immediately followed the departure of Leicester, and which under 
the influence and by the co-operation of three striking personalities 
were to mould the future of the Dutch republic. 

Those three personalities were John van Oldenbarneveldt, 
Maurice of Nassau and his cousin William Lewis of Nassau, the 
Stadholder of Friesland. Born in 1547, Oldenbarneveldt, after 
studying Jurisprudence at Louvain, Bourges and Heidelberg, 
became a devoted adherent of William the Silent and took part in 
the defence of Haarlem and of Ley den. His abilities, however, 
fitted him to take a prominent part as a politician and administrator 
rather than as a soldier ; and his career may be said to have begun 
by his appointment to the post of Pensionary of Rotterdam in 1576. 
In this capacity his industry and his talent speedily won for him 
a commanding position in the Estates of Holland, and he became 
one of the Prince of Orange's confidential friends and advisers. In 
1586 he was appointed Advocate of Holland in succession to Paul 
Buys. This office included the duties of legal adviser, secretary and 
likewise in a sense that of ''Speaker" to the Provincial Estates. 
In addition to all this he was the mouthpiece in the States-General 
of the deputation representing the Provincial Estates, and exercised 
in that assembly all the authority attaching to the man who spoke 
in the name of Holland. At this time of transition, by his pre- 
dominance alike in his own province of Holland and in the States- 
General, he was able to secure for the general policy of the Union, 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 91 

especially in the conduct of foreign affairs, a continuity of aim and 
purpose that enabled the loosely-cemented and mutually jealous 
confederacy of petty sovereign states to tide-over successfully the 
critical years which followed the departure of Leicester, and to 
acquire a sense of national unity. 

The brain and the diplomatic skill of the great statesman would, 
however, have been of little avail without the aid of the military 
abilities of Maurice of Nassau. Maurice was twenty years of age 
when Leicester left Holland. He was a man very different from his 
father in opinions and in the character of his talents. Maurice had 
nothing of his father's tolerance in religious matters or his subtle 
skill in diplomacy. He was a born soldier, but no politician, and 
had no wish to interfere in affairs of State. He had the highest 
respect for Oldenbarneveldt and complete confidence in his 
capacity as a statesman, and he was at all times ready to use the 
executive powers, which he exercised by virtue of the numerous 
posts he was speedily called upon to fill, for the carrying out of 
Oldenbameveldt's policy ; while the Advocate on his side found in 
the strong arm of the successful general the instrument that he 
needed for the maintenance of his supremacy in the conduct of the 
civil government. Already in 1587 Maurice w^as Stadholder of 
Holland and Zeeland. In 1588 he became Captain- General and 
Admiral- General of the Union with the control and supervision of 
all the armed forces of the Provinces by sea and by land. The death 
of Nieuwenaar in the following year created a vacancy in the 
stadholderates of Utrecht, Gelderland and Overyssel. Maurice was 
in each province elected as Nieuwenaar 's successor. The Advocate 
therefore and the Prince, through the close accord which was for 
many years to subsist between them, gathered thus into their hands 
(except in Friesland) practically the entire administrative, executive 
and military powers of the United Provinces and by their har- 
monious co-operation with William Lewis, the wise and capable 
Stadholder of Friesland, were able to give something of real unity 
to a group of states, each claiming to be a sovereign entity, and to ' 
give them the outward semblance of a federal republic. There was 
no ''eminent head," but the sovereignty in reality, if not in name, 
was vested during the period with which we have now to deal in 
this triumvirate. 

Circumstances provided a favourable field for the display of the 



92 THE BEGINNINGS OF 

youthful Maurice's military abilities. In 1589 the assassination 
of Henry III placed Henry of Navarre on the throne of France. 
The accession of the brilliant Huguenot leader led to civil war ; and 
the Catholic opposition was encouraged and supported by Philip II, 
who regarded Henry IV as a menace ^nd danger to the Spanish 
power. Parma, therefore, whose active prosecution of the war against 
the rebel provinces had been so long hindered by having to hold 
his army in readiness for the projected invasion of England, found 
himself, after the failure and destruction of the Armada, in no 
better position for a campaign in the northern Netherlands. Dis- 
appointment and false charges against him brought on a serious 
illness, and on his recovery he received orders to conduct an 
expedition into France. William Lewis of Nassau had for sometime 
been urging upon the States- General that the time for remaining 
upon the strict defensive was past, and that, when the enemy's efforts 
were weakened and distracted, the best defence was a vigorous 
offensive. At first he spoke to deaf ears, but he found now a 
powerful supporter in Maurice, and the two stadholders prevailed. 
They had now by careful and assiduous training created a strong 
and well- disciplined army for the service of the States. This army 
was made up by contingents of various nationalities, English, 
Scottish, French and German as well as Netherlanders. But the 
material was on the whole excellent, and the entire force was welded 
together by confidence in their leaders. 

In 1590 the capture of Breda by a ruse (seventy men hidden 
beneath a covering of peat making their entrance into the town and 
opening the gates to their comrades outside) was a good omen for 
the campaign that was planned for 1591. For the first time Maurice 
had an opportunity for showing his genius for war and especially 
for siege warfare. By rapid movements he took first Zutphen, then 
Deventer and Delfzijl, and relieved the fort of Knodsenburg (near 
Nijmwegen). Thus successful on the eastern frontier, the stadholder 
hurried to Zeeland and captured Hulst, the key to the land of Waas. 
He then turned his steps again to the east and appearing suddenly 
before Nijmwegen made himself master of this important city. 
Such a succession of brilliant triumphs established Maurice's fame, 
and to a lesser degree that of William Lewis, whose co-operation 
and advice were of the greatest service to the younger man. This 
was markedly the case in the following year (1592) when the two 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 93 

stadholders set to work to expel the Spaniards from the two strongly- 
fortified towns of Steenwijk and Coevorden, whose possession 
enabled a strong force under the veteran Verdugo to retain their 
hold upon Friesland. The States army was not at its full strength, 
for the English contingent under Sir Francis Vere had been sent 
to France ; and Verdugo was confident that any attempt to capture 
these well-garrisoned fortresses was doomed to failure. He had to 
learn how great was the scientific skill and resource of Maurice in the 
art of beleaguering. Steenwijk after an obstinate defence capitulated 
on June 5. Coevorden was then invested and in its turn had to 
surrender, on September 12. During this time Parma had been 
campaigning with no great success in northern France. In the 
autumn he returned to the Netherlands suffering from the effects 
of a wound and broken in spirit. Never did any man fill a difficult 
and trying post with more success and zeal than Alexander Farnese 
during the sixteen years of his governor-generalship. Nevertheless 
Philip was afraid of his nephew's talents and ambition, and he 
despatched the Count of Fuentes with a letter of recall. It was never 
delivered. Parma set out to meet him, but fell ill and died at Spa, 
December 2, 1592. He appointed the Count of Mansfeld to take 
his place, until the Archduke Ernest of Austria, who had been 
appointed to succeed him, arrived in the Netherlands. 

The campaign of 1593 was marked by the taking of Geertruiden- 
berg, a fortress which barred the free access of the Hollanders and 
Zeelanders to the inland waters. The science which Maurice 
displayed in the siege of this town greatly increased his renown. 
In the following year the stadholders turned their attention to the 
north-east corner of the land, which was still in the possession of 
the Spaniards. After a siege of two months Groningen surrendered ; 
and the city with the surrounding district was by the terms of the 
capitulation — known as "The Treaty of Reduction" — admitted as 
a province into the Union under the name of Stad en Landen. 
William Lewis was appointed stadholder, and Drente was placed 
under his jurisdiction. The northern Netherlands were now cleared 
of the enemy, and Maurice at the conclusion of the campaign made 
a triumphal entry into the Hague amidst general rejoicing. William 
Lewis lost no time in taking steps to establish Calvinism as the only 
recognised form of faith in his new government. His strong 
principles did not allow him to be tolerant, and to Catholicism he 



94 THE BEGINNINGS OF 

was a convinced foe. Everywhere throughout the United Provinces 
the reformed reUgion was now dominant, and its adherents alone 
could legally take part in public worship. 

In January, 1595, Henry IV declared war against Spain and was 
anxious for an alliance with the States against the common enemy. 
The Archduke Ernest, on whose coming into the Netherlands great 
hopes had been placed, found himself now in a difficult position 
with hostile armies threatening from both sides and no hope of 
efficient financial or other support from Spain. He was instructed 
therefore to enter into negotiations at the Hague with a view to the 
conclusion of a peace, based upon the terms of the Pacification of 
Ghent. But there was never any prospect of an agreement being 
reached ; and the sudden death of the archduke (February 20, 1595) 
brought the negotiations to an end. Archduke Ernest was succeeded 
by the Count of Fuentes as governor ad interim. Fuentes proved 
himself to be a strong and capable commander ; and the summer was 
marked by a series of successes against the hostile forces both of 
the French and the Netherlanders. There was no decisive encounter, 
but the Spanish forces foiled the efforts of their adversaries to effect 
an invasion or capture any towns. 

The Cardinal Archduke Albert arrived at Brussels to replace 
Fuentes in January, 1596. Albert was the favourite nephew of King 
Philip, and had been brought up at Madrid. Although an ecclesi- 
astic, he proved himself to be a statesman and soldier of more than 
ordinary capacity. It was intended that he should, as soon as the 
Pope's consent could be obtained, divest himself of his orders and 
marry his cousin the Infanta Isabel. The bankrupt condition of 
Spain prevented Philip from furnishing the archduke with adequate 
financial help on entering upon his governorship, but Albert was 
provided with some money, and he found in the Netherlands the 
well-disciplined and war- tried force of which Fuentes had made 
such good use in the previous campaign. He was anxious to 
emulate that general's success, and as the veteran leaders, Mondragon 
and Verdugo, had both died, he gave the command to the Seigneur 
de Rosne, a French refugee. This man was a commander of skill 
and enterprise, and special circumstances enabled him by two 
brilliant offensive strokes to capture first Calais and afterwards 
Hulst. Hulst was only taken after a severe struggle, in which De 
Rosne himself fell. 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 95 

The special circumstances which favoured these operations were 
brought about by the conclusion of a treaty of alliance between 
France, England and the States. This treaty was the result of 
prolonged negotiations ; it was of short duration and its conditions 
were far from favourable to the United Provinces, but it was of 
great importance from the fact that for the first time the new- 
fledged republic was recognised by the neighbouring sovereigns of 
France and England as an independent state and was admitted 
into alliance on terms of equality. It was, however, only with 
difficulty and through the insistence of Henry IV that Elizabeth 
was induced to acknowledge the independent status of the rebel 
provinces. In return the republic was required to keep up a force 
of 8000 men for service in the Netherlands, and to despatch 4000 
men to act with the French army in northern France — this auxiliary 
force to include the five English regiments in the States' service. 
Thus Maurice was deprived of a considerable part of his army and 
obliged to act on the defensive. Elizabeth also insisted upon the 
carrying out of Leicester's placard forbidding trade with the enemy. 
This clause of the treaty was very unpalatable to Amsterdam and 
the Hollanders generally, and only a sullen acquiescence was given 
to it. From the first it was systematically evaded. The English 
government on their part undertook to support the French king 
with a force equal in strength to that furnished by the Provinces, 
i.e. 4000 men, but at the same time a secret treaty was drawn up by 
which Henry agreed to a reduction of the English troops by one- 
half. This piece of underhand work was in due time discovered by 
the States, who saw that their allies were not to be trusted and that 
they must be on the watch lest their interests should be sacrificed 
to the selfish policy of France. The issue showed that Henry IV 
was in fact ready to make terms with Spain, as soon as it was to his 
advantage to do so. Meanwhile in 1 597 the French king, by advancing 
in force into Picardy, drew upon this frontier the chief attention of 
the Spaniards ; and Maurice seized the opportunity that was offered 
to him to conduct an offensive campaign with signal success. 

He began the year brilliantly by surprising in January, while still 
in its winter quarters, a Spanish force of 4500 near Turnhout. More 
than half the force was destroyed. On the side of the Netherlands 
eight men only fell. With the spring began a series of sieges ; and, 
one after the other, Rheinberg, Meurs, Groenloo, Breedevoort, 



96 THE BEGINNINGS OF 

Enschede, Ootmarsum, Oldenzaal and Lingen were captured. 
Gelderland, Overyssel and Drente were entirely freed from the 
presence of the enemy. With the opening of 1598 Henry IV and 
PhiUp II entered upon negotiations for a peace. The French king 
felt the necessity of a respite from war in order to reorganise the 
resources of his country, exhausted by a long continuance of civil 
strife ; and Philip was ill and already feeling his end approaching. 
The States strove hard to prevent what they regarded as desertion, 
and two embassies were despatched to France and to England to 
urge the maintenance of the alliance. Oldenbarneveldt himself 
headed the French mission, but he failed to turn Henry from his 
purpose. A treaty of peace between France and Spain was signed 
at Vervins, May 2, 1598. Oldenbarneveldt went from Paris to 
England and was more successful. Elizabeth bargained however 
for the repayment of her loan by annual instalments, and for armed 
assistance both by land and sea should an attack be made by the 
Spaniards on England. The queen, however, made two concessions. 
Henceforth only one English representative was to have a seat in 
the Council of State ; and all the English troops in the Netherlands, 
including the garrisons of the cautionary towns, were to take an oath 
of allegiance to the States. 

This year saw the accomplishment of a project on which the 
Spanish king had for some time set his heart — the marriage of the 
Cardinal Archduke Albert to his cousin the Infanta Isabel Clara 
Eugenia, and the erection of the Netherlands into an independent 
sovereignty under their joint rule. Philip hoped in this way to 
provide suitably for a well-beloved daughter and at the same time, 
by the grant of apparent independence to the Nether land provinces, 
to secure their allegiance to the new sovereigns. The use of the 
word ''apparent" is justified, for provision was made in the deed 
of cession that the Netherlands should revert to the Spanish crown 
in case the union should prove childless; and there was a secret 
agreement that the chief fortresses should still be garrisoned by 
Spanish troops and that the archdukes, as they were officially 
styled, should recognise the suzerainty of the King of Spain. 

Philip did not actually live to carry his plan into execution. His 
death took place on September 13, 1598. But all the necessary 
arrangements for the marriage and the transfer of sovereignty had 
already been made. Albert, having first divested himself of his 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 97 

ecclesiastical dignities, was married by proxy to Isabel at Ferrara in 
November. It was not until the end of the following year that 
the new rulers made their joy ease entree into Brussels, but their 
marriage marks the beginning of a fresh stage in the history of the 
Netherlands. Albert and Isabel were wise and capable, and they 
succeeded in gaining the affection and willing allegiance of the ^ 
southern provinces. The States- General of the revolted provinces 
of the north had, however, already enjoyed for some years a real 
independence won by suffering and struggle and they showed no 
disposition to meet the overtures of the archdukes. They were 
resolved to have no further connection with Spain or with Spanish 
rulers, and from this time forward the cleavage in character, senti- 
ment, and above all in religion, between north and south was to 
become, as time went on, more and more accentuated. TheJDutch'* 
republic and the Spanish Netherlands were henceforth destined to 
pursue their separate course along widely divergent paths. 

The ten years which had elapsed between the departure of 
Leicester and the advent of Albert and Isabel had witnessed a truly 
marvellous transformation in the condition of the rebel provinces, 
and especially of Holland and Zeeland. Gradually they had been '^ ' 
freed from the presence of the Spaniard, w^hile at the same time the 
Spanish yoke had been firmly riveted upon Flanders and Brabant. ^ 
These provinces were now devastated and ruined. The quays of 
Antwerp were deserted, the industries of Ghent and Bruges// 
destroyed. The most enterprising and skilful of their merchants 
and artisans had fled over the frontier into Holland or across the sea 
into England. Holland and Zeeland were thronged with refugees, 
Flemings and Brabanters, French Huguenots and numerous 
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, driven out by the pitiless persecution 
of Philip II. The Hollanders and Zeelanders had long been a sea- 
faring people, who had derived the chief part of their wealth from 
their fisheries and their carrying trade ; and this influx of new and 
vigorous blood, merchants, traders, and textile workers, bringing 
with them their knowledge, skill and energy, aroused such a 
phenomenal outburst of maritime and commercial activity and 
adventure as the world had never seen before. The fleets of the 
Hollanders and Zeelanders had during the whole of the war of 
independence been the main defence of those provinces against 
Spanish invasion ; but, great as had been the services they had 

E. H. H. 7 



98 THE BEGINNINGS OF 

rendered, it was the carrying- trade which had furnished the rebel 
states with the sinews of war, and of this a large part had been 
derived from that very trading with the enemy which Leicester 
had striven in vain to prevent. The Spaniards and Portuguese were 
dependent upon the Dutch traders for the supply of many necessaries 
of life ; and thus Spanish gold was made to pay for the support of 
the war which was waged against the Spanish king. The dues in 
connection with this trade, known as licences and convoys, alone 
furnished large sums to replenish the war-chest ; and it is said that 
from 25,000 to 30,000 seamen found employment by it. 

Amsterdam during this decade had been rapidly growing in 
importance and it was soon to be the first seaport in the world. 
It had become the emporium of the Baltic trade. In 1601 it is stated 
that batween 800 and 900 ships left its quays in three days, carrying 
commodities to the Baltic ports. They came back laden with com 
and other *' east-sea " goods, which they then distributed in French, 
Portuguese and Spanish havens, and even as far as Italy and the 
Levant. Ship-building went on apace at Enkhuizen, Hoorn and 
other towns on the Zuyder Zee ; and Zaandam was soon to become 
a centre of the timber trade. In Zeeland, Middelburg, through the 
enterprise of an Antwerp refugee of French extraction, by name 
Balthazar de Moucheron, was second only to Amsterdam as a sea- 
port, while Dordrecht and Rotterdam were also busy with shipping. 

The energies of the Dutch at this springtide of their national life 
were far from being confined to European waters. Dutch sailors 
already knew the way to the East-Indies round the Cape of Good 
Hope through employment on Portuguese vessels ; and the trade- 
routes by which the Spaniards brought the treasures of the New 
World across the Atlantic were likewise familiar to them and for 
a similar reason. The East-Indies had for the merchants of Holland 
and Zeeland, ever keenly on the look-out for fresh markets, a 
peculiar attraction. At first the Cape route was thought to be too 
dangerous, and several attempts were made to discover a north- 
west passage along the coast of Siberia. Balthazar de Moucheron 
was the pioneer in these northern latitudes. He established a regular 
traffic with the Russians by way of the White Sea, and had a factory 
(built in 1584) at Archangel. Through his instances, aided by those 
of the famous geographer Petrus Plancius (likewise a refugee from 
Antwerp), an expedition was fitted out and despatched in 1594 to 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 99 

try to sail round northern Asia, but it was driven back after 
passing through the Waigat by ice and storms. A like fate befell a 
second expedition in the following year. Discouraged, but still not 
despairing, a third fleet set out in 1596 under the command of 
Jacob van Heemskerk with William Barendtsz as pilot. Forced 
to winter in Spitsbergen, after terrible sufferings, Heemskerk 
returned home in the autumn of 1597 with the remnant of his crews. 
Barendtsz was one of those who perished. This was the last effort 
in this direction, for already a body of Amsterdam merchants had 
formed a company for trafficking to India by the Cape ; and four 
ships had sailed, April 2, 1596, under the command of Cornelis 
Houtman, a native of Gouda. A certain Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, 
who had been in the Portuguese service, had published in 1595 a 
book containing a description from personal knowledge of the 
route to the East and the character of the Portuguese commerce. 
It was the information contained in this work that led the 
Amsterdam merchants to venture their money upon Houtman *s 
expedition, which Linschoten himself accompanied as guide. They 
reached Madagascar, Java and the Moluccas, and, after much 
suffering and many losses by sickness, what was left of the little 
fleet reached home in July, 1597. The rich cargo they brought back, 
though not enough to defray expenses, proved an incentive to 
further efforts. Three companies were formed at Amsterdam, two 
at Rotterdam, one at Delft and two in Zeeland, for trading in the 
East-Indies, all vying with one another in their eagerness to make 
large profits from these regions of fabled wealth, hitherto mono- 
polised by the Portuguese. One expedition sent out by two 
Amsterdam companies under the command of Jacob van Neck and 
Wybrand van Waerwyck was very successful and came back in 
fifteen months richly laden with East-Indian products. The year 
1598 was one of great commercial activity. Two-and-twenty large 
vessels voyaged to the East-Indies ; others made their way to the 
coasts of Guinea, Guiana and Brazil; and one daring captain, 
Olivier van Noort, sailing through the Straits of Magellan, crossed 
the Pacific. It was in this year that Philip II prohibited by decree 
all trading in Spain with the Dutch, and all the Dutch ships 
in the harbours of the Peninsula were confiscated. But the 
Spanish trade was no longer of consequence to the Hollanders and 
Zeelanders. They had sought and found compensation elsewhere. 

7—2 



100 THE BEGINNINGS OF 

The small companies formed to carry out these ventures 
in the far-Eastern seas continued to grow in number, and by the 
very keenness of their competition threatened each other's enter- 
prises with ruin. In these circumstances the States-General and the 
Estates of Holland determined, under the leadership of Olden- 
barneveldt, to take a step which was to be fraught with very 
important consequences. The rival companies were urged to form 
themselves into a single corporation to which exclusive rights would 
be given for trading in the East-Indies. Such a proposal was in 
direct contradiction to that principle of free trade which had 
hitherto been dear to the Nether landers, and there was much 
opposition, and many obstacles had to be overcome owing to the 
jealousies of the various provinces, towns and bodies of merchants 
who were interested. But at length the patience and statesmanship 
of Oldenbarneveldt overcame all difficulties, and on Marchzo, 1601, 
a charter was issued creating the United East-India Company and 
giving it a monopoly of the East-India trade (for 21 years) with all 
lands east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of 
Magellan. The executive control was vested in a College known as 
the Seventeen. Extensive sovereign privileges were conferred upon 
the company and exercised by the Seventeen in the name of the States- 
General. They might make treaties with native rulers and potentates, 
erect forts for the protection of their factories, appoint governors 
and officials with administrative and judicial functions, and enlist 
troops, but these officials and troops were required to take an oath 
of allegiance to the States-General. The States- General themselves 
became ''participants" by investing the 25,000 pounds, which the 
company had paid them for the grant of the charter. The capital 
speedily reached the amount of six and a half million guilders. 

The warlike operations of the year 1599 were uneventful and 
in the main defensive, except on the eastern frontier where the 
Spanish forces under the command of the Admiral of Aragon, 
Mendoza, captured Wesel and Rheinberg. The new rulers of the 
Netherlands, Albert and Isabel, did not make their entry into 
Brussels until the end of 1599 ; and almost before they had had time 
to organise the new government and gain firm possession of the 
reins of power in the Belgic provinces, they found themselves 
confronted with a serious danger. The seaport of Dunkirk had for 
many years been a nest of pirates, who preyed upon Dutch commerce 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC loi 

in the narrow seas. The States-General, urged on by Oldenbame- 
veldt, resolved in the spring of 1606 to despatch an expedition to 
besiege and capture Dunkirk. Both Maurice and William Lewis 
were opposed to the project, which they regarded as rash and risky. 
The States- General, however, hearing reports of the archduke's 
soldiery being mutinous for lack of pay, persisted in their purpose, 
and Maurice, against his better judgment, acquiesced. A body of 
picked troops, 12,000 foot and 3000 horse, was assembled on the 
island of Walcheren. A succession of contrary winds delaying the 
sailing of the force, it was determined to march straight through 
West Flanders to Nieuport and then along the shore to Dunkirk. 
A deputation of the States- General, of which Oldenbarneveldt 
was the leading member, went to Ostend to supervise, much to 
Maurice's annoyance, the military operations. The stadholder, 
however, reached Nieuport without serious opposition and pro- 
ceeded to invest it. Meanwhile the Archduke Albert had been 
acting with great energy. By persuasive words and large promises 
he succeeded in winning back the mutineers, and at the head of a 
veteran force of 10,000 infantry and 1500 cavalry he followed 
Maurice and, advancing along the dunes, came on July i upon a 
body of 2000 men under the command of Ernest Casimir of Nassau, 
sent by the stadholder to defend the bridge of Leffingen. At the 
sight of the redoubtable Spanish infantry a panic seized these troops 
and they were routed with heavy loss. The fight, however, gave 
Maurice time to unite his forces and draw them up in battle order 
in front of Nieuport. Battle was joined the following afternoon, and 
slowly, foot by foot, after a desperate conflict the archduke's 
Spanish and Italian veterans drove back along the dunes the troops 
of the States. Every hillock and sandy hollow was fiercely contested, 
the brunt of the conflict falling on the English and Frisians under 
the command of Sir Francis Vere. Vere himself was severely 
wounded, and the battle appeared to be lost. At this critical moment 
the Spaniards began to show signs of exhaustion through their 
tremendous exertions in two successive fights under a hot sun in 
the yielding sand-hills; and the prince, at the critical moment, 
throwing himself into the midst of his retreating troops, succeeded 
in rallying them. At the same time he ordered some squadrons of 
cavalry which he had kept in reserve to charge on the flank of the 
advancing foe. The effect was instantaneous. The Spaniards were 



102 THE BEGINNINGS OF 

thrown into confusion, broke and fled. The victory was complete. 
The archduke only just escaped capture, and of his army 5000 
perished and a large number were taken prisoners, among these the 
Admiral of Aragon. Almost by a miracle was the States' army thus 
rescued from a desperate position. Maurice's hard-won triumph 

j j greatly enhanced his fame, for the battle of Nieuport destroyed the 

J I legend of the invincibility of the Spanish infantry in the open field. 

M The victorious general, however, was not disposed to run any 
further risks. He accordingly retreated to Ostend and there 
embarked his troops for the ports from which they had started. The 
expedition had been very costly and had been practically fruitless. 
Oldenbarneveldt and those who had acted with him were deeply 
disappointed at the failure of their plans for the capture of Dunkirk 
and were far from satisfied with Maurice's obstinate refusal to carry 

' out any further offensive operations. From this time there arose a 
feeling of soreness between the advocate and the stadholder, which 

j further differences of opinion were to accentuate in the coming years. 

* ^ The vigour and powers of leadership displayed by their new 
sovereigns in meeting the invasion of Flanders by the States' army, 
though a defeat in the field had been suffered at Nieuport, had 
inspired their subjects in the southern Netherlands with confidence 
and loyalty. Albert had proved himself a brave commander, and 
his efforts had at least been successful in compelling the enemy to 
withdraw within his own borders. 

Ostend had long been a thorn in the side of the government at 
Brussels and energetic steps were soon taken to besiege it. But the 
possession of Ostend was important also to Elizabeth, and she pro- 
mised active assistance. The larger part of the garrison was, indeed, 
formed of English troops, and Sir Francis Vere was governor 
of the town. The siege which ensued was one of the memorable 
sieges of history, it lasted for more than three years (July 15, 160 1, 
to September 20, 1604) and was productive of great feats of valour, 
skill and endurance on the part alike of besiegers and besieged. The 
States' army under Maurice, though it did not march to the relief 
of Ostend, endeavoured to divert the attention of Albert from his 
objective by attacks directed elsewhere. In 1601 the fortresses of 
Rheinberg and Meurs on the Rhine were captured, and an attack 
made upon Hertogenbosch. In 1602 the important town of Grave 
on the Meuse was taken and a raid made into Brabant and Luxem- 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 103 

burg. Meanwhile the defenders of Ostend had been making a 
desperate resistance, and little progress was made by the besiegers, 
with the result that a great drain was made upon the finances of 
the archdukes and there were threatenings of mutiny among the 
troops. But the situation was saved by the intervention of a wealthy 
Genoese banker, Ambrosio de Spinola, who offered his services and 
his money to the archdukes and promised that if he, though in- 
experienced in warfare, were given the command, he would take 
Ostend. He fulfilled his promise. Without regard to loss of life he 
pressed on the siege, and though as fast as one line of defences was 
taken another arose behind it to bar his progress, little by little he 
advanced and bit by bit the area held by the garrison grew less. 
At last in the spring of 1604, under the pressure of the States- 
General, Maurice led an army of 1 1 ,000 men into Flanders in April, 
1604, and laid siege to Sluis on May 19. Both Maurice and William 
Lewis were still unwilling to run the risk of an attack on Spinola's 
army in its lines, and so the two sieges went on side by side, as it 
were independently. Sluis fell at the end of August, and Ostend 
was then at its last gasp. Urged now by the deputies of the States 
to make a direct effort to relieve the heroic garrison, Maurice and 
his cousin, after wasting some precious time in protesting against 
the step, began to march southward. It was too late. What was left 
of Ostend surrendered on September 20, and Spinola became the 
master of a heap of ruins. It is said that this three years' siege cost 
the Spaniards 80,000 lives, to say nothing of the outlay of vast 
expenditure. Whether Maurice and William Lewis were right or 
wrong in their reluctance to assail Spinola's entrenched camp, it 
is certain that they were better judges of the military situation than 
the civilian deputies of the States. In any case the capture of Sluis 
was an offset to the loss of Ostend ; and its importance was marked 
by the appointment of Frederick Henry, the young brother of the 
stadholder, as governor of the seaport and the surrounding district, 
which received the name of States-Flanders. 

The tremendous exertions put forward for the defence of Ostend 
had been a very serious drain upon the resources of the United 
Provinces, especially upon those of Holland. Taxation was already 
so high that Oldenbarneveldt and many other leading members of 
the States-General and Provincial Estates began to feel despondent 
and to doubt whether it were possible to continue the war. No 



104 THE BEGINNINGS OF 

longer could the States rely upon the assistance of England. James I 
had concluded peace with Spain ; and, though he made professions 
of friendship and goodwill to the Dutch, wary statesmen, like the 
Advocate, did not trust him, and were afraid lest he should be 
tempted to deliver up the cautionary towns into the hands of the 
enemy. Reverting to the policy of William the Silent, Oldenbame- 
veldt even went so far as to make tentative approaches to Henry IV 
of France touching the conditions on which he would accept the 
sovereignty of the Provinces. Indeed it is said that such was the 
despair felt by this great statesman, who knew better than any man 
the economic difficulties of the situation, that he even contemplated 
the possibility of submission to the archdukes. Had he suggested 
submission, there would have been no question, however, that he 
could not have retained office, for Maurice, William Lewis and the 
military leaders on the one hand, and on the other the merchants 
and the adventurous seamen, whom they employed in the profit- 
able Indian traffic, would not have listened for a moment to any 
thought of giving up a struggle which had been so resolutely and 
successfully maintained for so many years. For financially the 
archdukes were in even worse plight than the Netherlanders, even 
though for a short time, with the help of Spinola, appearances 
seemed to favour the Belgic attacks on the Dutch frontier districts. 
In 1605 the Genoese general, at the head of a mixed but well- 
disciplined force in his own pay, made a rapid advance towards 
Friesland, and, after capturing Oldenzaal and Lingen and ravaging 
the eastern provinces, concluded the campaign with a brilliant 
success against a body of the States cavalry commanded by 
Frederick Henry, who nearly lost his life. Maurice with inferior 
forces kept strictly on the defensive, skilfully covering the heart of 
the land from attack, but steadily refusing a pitched battle. In the 
following year Spinola with two armies attempted to force the lines 
of the Waal and the Yssel, but, though thwarted in this aim by the 
wariness of the stadholder and by a very wet season, he succeeded 
in taking the important fortresses of Groll and Rheinberg. 
Maurice made no serious effort to relieve them, and his inactivity 
caused much discontent and adverse comment. His military 
reputation suffered, while that of his opponent was enhanced. But 
subsequent events showed that Maurice, though perhaps erring on 
the side of caution, had acted rightly. The armies which had 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 105 

threatened the safety of the Provinces had been raised at the 
charges of a private individual, but the financial resources, even of 
a Spinola, were not capable of a prolonged effort; there was no 
money in the State treasury ; and the soldiery, as soon as their pay 
was in arrears, began once more to be mutinous. The bolt had been 
shot without effect, and the year 1607 found both sides, through 
sheer lack of funds, unable to enter upon a fresh campaign on land 
with any hope of definite success. But though the military campaigns , 
had been so inconclusive, it had been far dilQFerent with the fortunes j 
of maritime warfare in these opening years of the seventeenth j 
century. The sea-power of the Dutch republic was already a / 
formidable factor which had to be reckoned with and which was | 
destined to be decisive. 

The East-India Company was no sooner founded than active 
steps were taken to make full use of the privileges granted by the 
Charter. A fleet of 17 vessels was despatched in 1602 under 
Wybrand van Waerv^^xk. Waerwyck visited Ceylon and most of 
the islands of the Malay Archipelago, estabUshed a factory at 
Bantam with a staff of officials for developing trade relations with 
the natives, and even made his way to Siam and China. He sent back 
from time to time some of his vessels richly laden, and finally 
returned himself with the residue of his fleet after an absence of 
five years in June, 1607. Another expedition of thirteen ships sailed 
in 1604 under Steven van der Hagen, whose operations wxre as 
widespread and as successful as those of Waerwyck. Van der Hagen 
took possession of Molucca and built factories at Amboina, Tidor 
and other places in the spice-bearing islands. On his way back in 
1606 with his cargo of cloves, spices and other products of the far 
Orient, he encountered at Mauritius another westward-bound fleet 
of eleven ships under ComeUs Matelief. Matelief s first objective 
was the town of Malacca, held by the Portuguese and commanding 
the straits to which it gave its name. Alphonso de Castro, the 
Viceroy of India, hastened however with a naval force far more 
powerful than the Dutch squadron to the relief of this important 
fortress ; and after a hardly-fought but indecisive action Matelief 
raised the siege on August 17. Returning, however, about a month 
later, the Dutch admiral found that De Castro had sailed away, 
leaving only a detachment of ten vessels before Malacca. Matelief 
at once attacked this force, whose strength was about equal to his 



io6 THE BEGINNINGS OF 

own, and with such success that he sank or burnt every single ship 
of the enemy with scarcely any loss, September 21, 1606. 

These successful incursions into a region that the Spaniards and 
Portuguese had jealously regarded as peculiarly their own aroused 
both anger and alarm. All available forces in the East (the Portuguese 
from the Mozambique and Goa, the Spaniards from the Philip- 
pines) were equipped and sent to sea with the object of expelling 
the hated and despised Netherlanders from East-Indian waters. 
Paulus van Caerden, Matelief 's successor in command, was defeated 
and himself taken prisoner. Nor were the Spaniards content with 
attacking the Dutch fleets in the far East. As the weather-worn and 
heavily-laden Company's vessels returned along the west coast of 
Africa, they had to pass within striking distance of the Spanish 
and Portuguese harbours and were in constant danger of being 
suddenly assailed by a superior force and captured. In 1607 rumours 
reached Holland of the gathering of a large Spanish fleet at 
Gibraltar, whose destination was the East-Indies. The directors of 
the Company were much alarmed, an alarm which was shared by 
the States- General, many of whose deputies were cargo-share- 
holders. Accordingly, in April, 1607, a fleet of twenty-six vessels set 
sail for the purpose of seeking out and attacking the Spaniards 
whether in harbour or on the open sea. The command was given to 
one of the most daring and experienced of Dutch seamen, Jacob 
van Heemskerk. He found twenty-one ships still at anchor in 
Gibraltar Bay, ten of them large galleons, far superior in size and 
armament to his own largest vessels. Heemskerk at once cleared for 
action. Both Heemskerk and the Spanish commander, d'Avila, were 
killed early in the fight, the result of which however was not long 
doubtful. The Spanish fleet was practically destroyed. On the 
Dutch side no vessel was lost and the casualties were small. Such 
a disaster was most humiliating to Castilian pride, and its effect in 
hastening forward the peace negotiations, which were already in 
progress, was considerable. 

The initial steps had been taken by the archdukes. Through the 
secret agency of Albert's Franciscan Confessor, Father John Neyen, 
both Oldenbarneveldt and Maurice were approached in May, 
1606, but without any result. Early in 1607 however the efforts 
were renewed, and negotiations were actively set on foot for the 
purpose of concluding a peace or a truce for a term of twelve. 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 107 

fifteen or twenty years. There were, however, almost insuperable 
difficulties in the way. In the first place the stadholders, the 
military and naval leaders, the Calvinist clergy, and the great 
majority of the traders honestly believed that a peace would be 
detrimental to all the best interests of the States, and were thoroughly 
distrustful of the motives which had prompted the archdukes and 
the Spanish government to make these advances. Oldenbarneveldt 
on the other hand thought that peace was necessary for the land 
to recuperate after the exhausting struggle, which had already lasted 
for forty years ; and he found strong support among the burgher- 
regents and that large part of the people who were over-burdened 
and impoverished by the weight of taxation, and sick and weary 
of perpetual warfare. There were, however, certain preliminary 
conditions, which all were agreed must be assented to, and without 
which it would be useless to continue the negotiations. The 
independence of the United Provinces must be recognised, freedom 
of trade in the Indies conceded, and the public exercise of Catholic 
worship prohibited. After some parleying the archdukes agreed to 
treat with the United Provinces "in the quality and as considering 
them free provinces and states," and an armistice was concluded in 
April, 1607, for eight months, in order that the matters in dispute 
might be referred to the King of Spain and his views upon them 
ascertained. Not till October did the Idng's reply arrive at Brussels. 
He consented to negotiate with the States "as free and indepen- 
dent" parties, but he required that liberty of Catholic worship 
should be permitted during the truce, and no mention was made 
of the Indian trade. This was by no means satisfactory ; nevertheless 
the influence of Oldenbarneveldt prevailed and the negotiations 
were not broken off. On February i, 1608, the archdukes' envoys, 
the two leading members being Ambrosio de Spinola and the presi- 
dent of the Privy Council, Ricardot, arrived in Holland. They were 
met at Ryswyck by Maurice and William Lewis in person, and 
with much ceremony and splendour a solemn entry was made into 
the Hague, the procession with the brilliant retinues forming a 
memorable spectacle, as it made its way through the crowds which 
lined the roads. The negotiations were conducted in the Binnenhof. 
The Special Commissioners to represent the States-General were 
William Lewis of Nassau, Walraven, lord of Brederode, and a 
deputy from each of the provinces under the leadership of Olden- 



io8 THE BEGINNINGS OF 

barneveldt. Envoys from France, England, Denmark, the Palatinate 
and Brandenburg were present, took part in the discussions, and 
acted as friendly mediators. 

The question of treating the United Provinces "as free States" 
was soon settled. The archdukes, who were aiming at the con- 
clusion of a truce in which to recuperate and not of a definitive 
peace, showed an unexpected complaisance in granting a concession 
which they regarded as only temporary. Then came the really 
serious questions as to freedom of trade in the Indies and the liberty 
of Catholic worship. Of these the first was of most immediate 
interest, and showed irreconcilable differences between the two 
parties. The Spaniards would never consent to any trespassing in 
the closed area, which they regarded as their own peculiar preserve. 
The Dutch traders and sailors were fired with the spirit of adventure 
and of profit, and their successful expeditions had aroused an 
enthusiasm for further eflfort in the distant seas, which had hardened 
into a fixed resolve not to agree to any peace or truce shutting them 
out from the Indian trade. For months the subject was discussed 
and re-discussed without result. Some of the foreign delegates left. 
The armistice was prolonged, in order that Father Neyen might go 
to Madrid for further instructions. It was found, however, that the 
King of Spain would yield nothing. The negotiations came to a 
standstill, and both sides began to make preparations for a renewal 
of the war. President Jeannin on behalf of the French king, by his 
skilful mediation, in which he was supported by his English colleague, 
saved the situation. He proposed as a compromise a twelve years' 
truce, pointing out that whatever terms were arranged would only 
be binding for that short period. He managed to bring about a 
personal interview between Oldenbarneveldt and Maurice, who 
had respectively headed the peace and war parties in the provinces ; 
and henceforth both consented to work together for this proposal 
of a limited truce, during which the trade to the Indies should be 
open and the religious question be untouched. The assent of the 
States- General and of the several Provincial Estates was obtained. 
The two most interested, Holland and Zeeland, were won over, 
Holland by the arguments and persuasions of the Advocate, Zeeland, 
which was the last to agree, by the influence of Maurice. Jeannin 
was aware that the finances of Spain were at their last gasp, and that 
both the archdukes and Philip III were most anxious for a respite 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 109 

from the ever-consuming expense of the war. At last the long and 
wearisome negotiations came to an end, and the treaty concluding a 
truce for twelve years was signed at the Hague on April 9, 1609. The 
territorial status quo was recognised. The United Provinces were 
treated "as free States over which the archdukes made no pre- 
tensions." Nothing was said about the religious difficulty nor about 
trade in the Indies, but in a secret treaty the King of Spain under- 
took not to interfere with Dutch trade, wherever carried on. Thus 
access to the Indies was conceded, though to save appearances the 
word was not mentioned. This result was due solely to the diplomatic 
tact and resource of Jeannin, who was able to announce to Henry IV 
that he had accomplished his task "to the satisfaction of everyone, 
and even of Prince Maurice." 



CHAPTER VII 

THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT 

One of the reasons which influenced the archdukes and the King 

of Spain to make large concessions in order to secure the assent of 

the States- General to the conclusion of a twelve years* truce was 

their firm belief that the unstable political condition of the United 

^'Provinces must lead to civil discord, as soon as the relaxing of the 

// pressure of war loosened the bonds which had, since Leicester's 

1 1 departure, held together a number of separate authorities and 

H discordant interests. They were right in their supposition. In order, 

therefore, to understand the course of events in the republic, which 

had been correctly recognised by the treaty not as a single state, but 

as a group of " free and independent States," it is necessary to give 

a brief account of one of the most strangely complicated systems 

of government that the world has ever seen — especially strange 

because no one could ever say positively where or with whom the 

sovereignty really resided. 

Let us take into separate consideration the powers and functions 
of (i) the Council of State, (2) the States- General, (3) the Provincial 
Estates, (4) the Stadholders, (5) the Advocate (later the Raad- 
Pensionarius or Council-Pensionary) of Holland, (6) the Admiralty 
Colleges. 
M The Council of State was not a legislative, but an executive, body. 
In the time of Leicester the Council was the executive arm of the 
governor-general and had large powers. After his departure the 
presence of the English ambassador, who by treaty had a seat in 
the Council, caused the States- General gradually to absorb its 
powers, and to make its functions subordinate to their own, until 
at last its authority was confined to the administration of the affairs 
of war and of finance. The right of the English representative to 
sit in the Council and take an active part in its deliberations con- 
tinued till 1626. The stadholders were also ex officio members. The 
Provinces, since 1588, were represented by twelve councillors. 
Holland had three; Gelderland, Zeeland and Friesland two each; 



THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT iii 

Utrecht, Overyssel and Groningen {Stad en Landen) one each. The 
treasurer-general and the clerk {Griffier) of the States-General 
took part in the deliberations and had great influence. The chief 
duty of the Council, during the period with which we are dealing, 
was the raising of the "quotas" from the various provinces for the 
military defence of the State. The General Petition or War Budget 
was prepared by the Council and presented to the States- General 
at the end of each year, providing for the military expenses in the 
following twelve months. The "quotas " due towards these expenses 
from the several provinces were set forth in smaller petitions sent 
to the Provincial Estates, whose consent was necessary. The so- 
called repartitie fixing the amount of these quotas was likewise 
drawn up by the Council of State, and was the subject at times of 
considerable haggling and discontent. In 1612 it was settled that 
the proportions to be borne by the provinces should be Holland 
57' I per cent. ; Friesland 11-4; Zeeland 1 1 (afterwards reduced to 9) ; 
Utrecht and Groningen 5-5; Overyssel 3-5. It will thus be seen 
that the quota of Holland was considerably more than half of the 
whole; and, as the naval expenditure was to an even larger extent 
borne by Holland, the preponderating influence of this province 
in the Union can be easily understood. The forces of the republic 
that were distributed in the several provinces received their pay 
from the provinces, but those maintained by the Council, as troops 
of the State, were paid by monies received from the Generality 
lands, i.e. lands such as the conquered portions of Brabant and 
Flanders, governed by the States- General, but without representa- 
tion in that body. The Council of State, though its political powers 
were curtailed and absorbed by the States- General, continued to 
exercise, as a court of justice, appellate jurisdiction in military and 
financial questions. 

The States- General consisted of representatives of the Estates 
of the severi sovereign provinces of Gelderland, Holland, Zeeland, 
Utrecht, Friesland, Overyssel, and Groningen {Stad en Landen) in 
the order of precedence given above. Gelderland, having been a 
duchy, ranked before those that had formerly been counties or 
lordships. The provinces sent deputations varying in number; 
Holland and Gelderland generally six, the others less. Each province 
had but a single vote. The president changed week by week, being 
chosen in turn from each province according to their order of 



112 THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT 

precedence. Holland had nominally no more weight than the others ; 
its practical influence, however, was great in proportion to the 
burden of taxation that it bore and was increased by the fact that 
the sessions, which after 1593 were permanent, were held at the 
Hague in the same building with the Estates of Holland, and that 
the Council-Pensionary of Holland was the spokesman of the 
province in the States- General. The States- General had control of 

/ the foreign aflFairs of the Union. To them belonged the supreme 

; control of military and naval matters. The Captain- General and 

1 Admiral- General of the Union were appointed by them; and a 

deputation of the States- General accompanied the army into the 

field and the commanders were bound to consult it. They exercised 

a strong supervision of finance, and sovereign authority over the 

entire administration of the ' ' Generality " lands. Ambassadors were 

appointed by them, also the Treasurer- General of the Union, and 

numerous other important officials. Yet with all these attributes 

I and powers the States-General possessed only a derived, not an 

[jinherent, authority. To foreigners the sovereignty of the republic 
of the United Netherlands appeared to be vested in their "High- 
Mightinesses." In reality the States- General was, as already stated, 
a gathering of deputations from the seven sovereign provinces. 

■ Each deputation voted as a unit ; and in all important affairs of peace 
and war, treaties and finance, there must be no dissentient. A single 
province, however small, could, by obstinate opposition, block the 
way to the acceptance of any given proposal . Moreover the memb ers , 
despite their lofty designation as High-Mightinesses, did not vote 
according to their convictions or persuasions, but according to the 
charge they had received from their principals. The deputation of 

jja province had no right to sanction any disputable measure or 

' proposal without referring it back to the Estates of that province 
for approval or disapproval. Hence arose endless opportunities and 
occasions for friction and dissension and manifold delays in the 
transaction of the business of the republic, oftentimes in a manner 
inimical to its vital interests. 
// The Provincial Estates in their turn were by no means homo- 
geneous or truly representative bodies. In Holland the nobles had 
one vote ; and eighteen towns, Dordrecht, Haarlem, Delft, Leyden, 
Amsterdam, Gouda, Rotterdam, Gorkum, Schiedam, Schoonhoven, 
Brill, Alkmaar, Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Edam, Monnikendam, Medem- 



THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT 113 

blik and Purmerend, had one each. The nobles, though they had 
only one vote, were influential, as they represented the rural districts 
and the small towns which had no franchise, and they voted first. 
Here again, as in the States- General, though each of the privileged jj 
towns counted equal in the voting, as a matter of fact their weight \\ 
and influence was very different. The opposition of wealthy and , 
populous Amsterdam was again and again sufficient to override the 
decision of the majority, for there was no power to enforce its 
submission, except the employment of armed force. For at this 
point it may be as well to explain that each one of these municipalities 
{moedschappen) claimed to be a sovereign entity, and yet, far from 
being bodies representing the citizens as a whole, they were close 
corporations of the narrowest description. The ordinary inhabitants 
of these towns had no voice whatever in the management of their 
own affairs. The governing body or vroedschap consisted of a limited 
number of persons, sometimes not more than forty, belonging to 
certain families, which filled up vacancies by co-option and chose 
the burgomasters and sheriffs (schepenen). Thus it will be seen that [ 
popular representation had no place in Holland. The regent- 
burghers were a small patrician oligarchy, in whose hands the entire 
government and administration of the towns rested, and from their 
number were chosen the deputies, who represented the eighteen 
privileged cities in the Provincial Estates. 

The other provinces do not need such detailed notice. In Zeeland 
the Estates consisted of seven members, the ''first noble" (who 
presided) and six towns. There was but one noble, the Marquis of 
Flushing and Veere. William the Silent in 1581 obtained this 
marquisate by purchase; and his heirs, through its possession, 
continued to exercise great influence in the Provincial Estates. As 
Philip William, Prince of Orange, was in Madrid, Maurice sat in 
the assembly as "first noble" in his place. In Utrecht the three 
Estates were represented, i.e. the nobles, the towns (four in number) 
and the clergy. The representatives of the clergy were, however, 
chosen no longer from the Chapter but from the possessors of 
what had been Church lands and property. They were elected by 
the knights and the small towns out of a list drawn up by the 
corporation of Utrecht. They necessarily belonged to the Reformed 
(Calvinist) faith. Gelderland was divided into three (so-called) 
quarters, Nijmwegen,Zutphen and Arnhem. Each of these quarters 

E. H. H. 8 



114 THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT 

had its separate assembly ; and there was also a general diet. The 
nobles, who were numerous and had large estates, were here very 
influential. Friesland was divided into four quarters, three of which 
(Oostergoo, Westergoo and Zevenwolden) were country districts, 
the fourth a gathering of the deputies of eleven towns. The Diet of 
Friesland was not formed of Estates, the nobles and the town 
representatives sitting together in the same assembly, which was 
elected by a popular vote, all who had a small property-qualification 
possessing the franchise, Roman Catholics excepted. The system 
of administration and divided authority was in Friesland a very 
complicated one, inherited from mediaeval times, but here again 
the nobles, being large land-owners, had much influence. The 
stadholder presided at the diet and had a casting vote. The Estates 
of Groningen were divided into two parts — town and districts — 
each with one vote. The districts were those of Hunsingoo, 
Fivelingoo and the West-Quarter. Here also the stadholder had 
a casting vote. In Overyssel the Estates, Hke those of Groningen, 
consisted of two members, the nobles from the three quarters, 
Sallant, Twente and VoUenhove, and the deputies of the three 
towns, Deventer, Kampen and ZwoUe. 

The ordinary executive and administrative work of Provincial 
government was carried out in Holland by a body known as the 
Commissioned-Councillors — Gecommitteerde-Raden; in the other 
provinces by Deputed-Estates — Gedeputeerde-Staten. The Com- 
missioned-Councillors were to the Estates of Holland what the 
Council of State was to the States-General. They enjoyed con- 
siderable independence, for they were not appointed by the Estates 
but directly by the nobles and cities according to a fixed system of 
rotation, and they sat continuously, whereas the Estates only met 
for short sessions. Their duty was to see that all provincial edicts 
and ordinances decreed by the Estates were published and en- 
forced, to control the finances and to undertake the provision and 
oversight of all military requirements ; and to them it belonged to 
summon the meetings of the Estates. The Deputed-Estates in the 
other provinces had similar but generally less extensive and 
authoritative functions. 

Such a medley of diverse and often conflicting authorities within 
a state of so small an area has no counterpart in history. It seemed 
impossible that government could be carried on, or that there could 



THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT 115 

be any concerted action or national policy in a republic which was 
rather a many-headed confederation than a federal state. That the 
United Netherlands, in spite of all these disadvantages, rapidly rose 
in the 17th century to be a maritime and commercial power of the 
first rank was largely due to the fact that the foreign policy of the 
republic and the general control of its administration was directed 
by a succession of very able men, the stadholders of the house of 
Orange-Nassau and the council-pensionaries of Holland. For a 
right understanding of the period of Dutch history with which we 
are about to deal, it is necessary to define clearly what was the 
position of the stadholder and of the council-pensionary in this 
cumbrous and creaking machinery of government that has just been 
described, and the character of those offices, which conferred upon 
their holders such wide-reaching influence and authority. 

The stadholder or governor was really, both in title and office, 
an anomaly in a republic. Under the Burgundian and Habsburg 
rulers the stadholder exercised the local authority in civil and also 
in military matters as representing the sovereign duke, count or 
lord in the province to which he was appointed, and was by that 
fact clothed with certain sovereign attributes during his tenure of 
office. William the Silent was Stadholder of Holland and Zeeland 
at the outbreak of the revolt, and, though deprived of his offices, 
he continued until the time of the Union of Utrecht to exercise 
authority in those and other provinces professedly in the name of 
the king. After his death one would have expected that the office 
would have fallen into abeyance, but the coming of Leicester into 
the Netherlands led to a revival of the stadholderate. Holland and 
Zeeland, in their desire to exercise a check upon the governor- 
general's arbitrary exercise of his powers, appointed Maurice of 
Nassau to take his father's place ; and at the same time William Lewis 
of Nassau became Stadholder of Friesland, and stadholders were 
also appointed in Utrecht, Gelderland and Overyssel. In 1609 
Maurice was stadholder in the five provinces of Holland, Zeeland, 
Gelderland, Utrecht and Overyssel; his cousin WilUam Lewis in 
Friesland and Groningen with Drente. The powers of the stad- 
holder were not the same in the different provinces, but generally t 
speaking he was the executive officer of the Estates ; and in Holland, } 
where his authority was the greatest, he had the supervision of the 
administration of justice, the appointment of a large number of 



ii6 THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT 

municipal magistrates, and the prerogative of pardon, and he was 
charged with the miHtary and naval defence of the province. The 
stadholder received his commission both from the Provincial 
Estates and from the States-General and took an oath of allegiance 
to the latter. Insofar, then, as he exercised quasi-sovereign functions, 
he did it in the name of the States, whose servant he nominally was. 
But when the stadholder, as was the case with Maurice and the 
other Princes of Orange, was himself a sovereign-prince and the 
heir of a great name, he was able to exercise an authority far 
exceeding those of a mere official. The descendants of William the 
Silent — Maurice, Frederick Henry, William H and William HI — 
were, moreover, all of them men of exceptional ability; and the 
stadholderate became in their hands a position of almost semi- 
monarchical dignity and influence, the stadholder being regarded 
both by foreign potentates and by the people of the Netherlands 
generally as "the eminent head of the State." Maurice, as stated 
above, was stadholder in five provinces; Frederick Henry, 
William H and William HI in six; the seventh province, Friesland, 
remaining loyal, right through the 17th century, to their cousins of 
the house of Nassau- Siegen, the ancestors of the present Dutch 
royal family. That the authority of the States- General and States- 
Provincial should from time to time come into conflict with that of 
the stadholder was to be expected, for the relations between them 
were anomalous in the extreme. The Stadholder of Holland for 
instance appointed, directly or indirectly, the larger part of the 
municipal magistrates ; they in their turn the representatives who 
formed the Estates of the Province. But, as the stadholder was the 
servant of the Estates, he, in a sense, may be said to have had the 
power of appointing his own masters. The stadholders of the house 
of Orange had also, in addition to the prestige attaching to their 
name, the possession of large property and considerable wealth, 
which with the emoluments they received from the States-General, 
as Captain- General and Admiral-General of the Union, and from 
the various provinces, where they held the post of stadholder, 
enabled them in the days of Frederick Henry and his successors 
to maintain the state and dignity of a court. 

(The office of Land's Advocate or Council-Pensionary was 
different altogether in character from the stadholderate, but at 
times scarcely less influential, when filled by a man of commanding 



THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT 117 

talents. The Advocate in the time of Oldenbameveldt combined 
the duties of being legal adviser to the Estates of Holland, and of 
presiding over and conducting the business of the Estates at their 
meetings, and also those of the Commissioned- Councillors. He was 
the leader and spokesman of the Holland deputies in the States- 
General. He kept the minutes, introduced the business and 
counted the votes at the provincial assemblies. It was his duty to 
draw up and register the resolutions. What was perhaps equally 
important, he carried on the correspondence with the ambassadors 
of the republic at foreign courts, and received their despatches, and 
conducted negotiations with the foreign ambassadors at the Hague. 
It is easy to see how a man like Oldenbameveldt, of great industry 
and capacity for affairs, although nominally the paid servant of the 
Estates, gradually acquired an almost complete control over every 
department of administration and became, as it were, a Minister of 
State of all affairs. In Oldenbarneveldt's time the post was held for 
life ; and, as Maurice did not for many years trouble himself about 
matters of internal government and foreign diplomacy, the Advocate 
by the length of his tenure of office had at the opening of the 17th 
century become the virtual director and arbiter of the policy of the 
State. After his death the title of advocate and the life-tenure ceased. ■ 
His successors were known as Council-Pensionaries, and they held ( 
office for five years only, but with the possibility of re-election. The 
career of John de Witt showed, however, that in the case of a 
supremely able man these restrictions did not prevent a Raad- 
Pensionarius^ from exercising for eighteen years an authority and 
influence greater even than that of Oldenbameveldt. 

An account of the multiplied subdivision of administrative 
control in the United Provinces would not be complete without 
some mention of the Admiralty Colleges in Holland. Holland with 
Zeeland furnished the fleets on which the existence and well-being 
of the republic depended. Both William the Silent and his son 
Maurice were, as stadholders, admirals of Holland and of Zeeland, 
and both likewise were by the States- General appointed Admirals- 
General of the Union. They thus wielded a double authority over 
maritime affairs in the two provinces. In 1574 William had at his 
side a Council of Admiralty erected by the Provincial Estates, but 
Leicester in 1585 was annoyed by the immediate control of naval 

* By English and French writers generally translated Grand Pensionary. 



ii8 



THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT 



matters being withdrawn from the governor-general and the 
Council of State. He succeeded therefore in obtaining a division 
of the Council of Admiralty into three Chambers, shortly after- 
wards increased to five — Rotterdam, Hoorn with Enkhuizen, Veere, 
Amsterdam and Harlingen with Dokkum. In 1597 it was deter- 
mined that each Admiralty should consist of seven members 
nominated by the States-General. The Admiral- General presided 
over each College and over joint meetings of the five Colleges. The 
Admiralties nominated the lieutenants of the ships and proposed a 
list of captains to be finally chosen by the States- General. The 
Lieutenant- Admiral and Vice- Admirals of Holland and the Vice- 
Admiral of Zeeland were chosen by the Provincial Estates. The 
States- General appointed the Commander-in-Chief. Such a system 
seemed to be devised to prevent any prompt action or swift decision 
being taken at times of emergency or sudden danger. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 

The first years of the truce were for the United Provinces, now 
recognised as "free and independent States," a period of remarkable 
energy and enterprise. The young republic started on its new career 
with the buoyant hopefulness that comes from the proud con- 
sciousness of suffering and dangers bravely met and overcome, and, 
under the wise and experienced guidance of Oldenbarneveldt, 
acquired speedily a position and a weight in the Councils of Europe 
out of all proportion to its geographical area or the numbers of its 
population. The far-seeing statecraft and practised diplomatic skill 
of the Advocate never rendered greater services to his country than 
during these last years of his long tenure of power. A difficult 
question as to the succession to the Jiilich-Cleves duchies arose 
at the very time of the signing of the truce, which called for delicate 
and wary treatment. 

In March, 1609, the Duke of Jiilich and Cleves died without 
leaving a male heir, and the succession to these important border 
territories on the Lower Rhine became speedily a burning question. 
The two principal claimants through the female line were the 
Elector of Brandenburg and William, Count-Palatine of Neuburg. 
The Emperor Rudolph II, however, under the pretext of appointing 
imperial commissioners to adjudicate upon the rival claims, aroused 
the suspicions of Brandenburg and Neuburg ; and these two came to 
an agreement to enter into joint possession of the duchies, and were 
styled "the possessors." The Protestant Union at Heidelberg 
recognised" the possessors," for it was all-important for the balance 
of power in Germany that these lands should not pass into the 
hands of a Catholic ruler of the House of Austria. For the same 
reason Brandenburg and Neuburg were recognised by the States- 
General, who did not wish to see a partisan of Spain established on 
their borders. The emperor on his part not only refused to 
acknowledge "the possessors," but he also sent his cousin Arch- 
duke Leopold, Bishop of Passau, to intervene by armed force. 



120 THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 

Leopold seized the fortress of Jiilich and proceeded to establish 
himself. 

It was an awkward situation, for neither the United Provinces 
nor the archdukes nor the King of Spain had the smallest desire 
to make the Jiilich succession the cause of a renewal of hostilities, 
immediately after the conclusion of the truce. The eagerness of 
the French king to precipitate hostilities with the Habsburg powers 
however forced their hands. Henry IV had for some time been 
making preparations for war, and he was at the moment irritated 
by the protection given by the archdukes to the runaway Princess of 
Conde, who had fled to Brussels. He had succeeded in persuading 
the States to send an auxiliary force into Germany to assist the 
French army of invasion in the spring of 1610, when just as the 
king was on the point of leaving Paris to go to the front he was 
assassinated on May 14. This event put an end to the expedition, 
for the regent, Marie de' Medici, was friendly to Austria. The 
States nevertheless did not feel disposed to leave Leopold in 
possession of Jiilich. Maurice led an army into the duchy and laid 
siege to the town. It capitulated on September i. As might have been 
anticipated, however, the joint rule of the "possessors " did not turn 
out a success. They quarrelled, and Neuburg asked for Catholic 
help. Maurice and Spinola in 16 14 found themselves again face to 
face at the head of rival forces, but actual hostilities were avoided; 
and by the treaty of Xanten (November 12, 1 614) it was arranged 
that the disputed territory should be divided, Brandenburg ruling 
at Cleves, Neuburg at Jiilich. Thus, in the settlement of this thorny 
question, the influence of Oldenbarneveldt worked for a temporary 
solution satisfactory to the interests of the United Provinces ; nor 
was his successful intervention in the Jiilich- Cleves affair an 
isolated instance of his diplomatic activity. On the contrary it was 
almost ubiquitous. 

The growth of the Dutch trade in the Baltic had for some years 
been advancing by leaps and bounds, and now far exceeded that 
of their old rivals, the Hanseatic league. Christian IV, the ambitious 
and warlike King of Denmark, had been seriously interfering with 
this trade by imposing such heavy dues for the passage of the Sound 
as on the one hand to furnish him with a large revenue, and on the 
other hand to support his claim to sovereign rights over all traffic 
with the inland sea. The Hanse towns protested strongly and sought 



THE T^^^LVE YEARS' TRUCE 121 

the support of the States- General in actively opposing the Danish 
king. It was granted. A force of 7000 men under Frederick Henry 
was sent into Germany to the relief of Brunswick, which was 
besieged by Christian IV. The siege was raised ; and an alliance was 
concluded between the repubUc and the Hanse towns for common 
action in the protection of their commercial interests. Nor was this 
all. Oldenbameveldt entered into diplomatic relations with Charles IX 
of Sweden and with Russia. Comelis Haga was sent to Stockholm ; 
and from this time forward a close intimacy was established between 
Sw^eden and the States. The seaport of Gotheborg, just outside 
the entrance to the Sound, was founded by a body of Dutch 
colonists under a certain Abraham Cabelliau, an Amsterdam 
merchant, and continued to be for years practically a Dutch town. 

Scarcely less important was the enterprise shown in the 
establishment of friendly relations with distant Russia. Balthazar 
de Moucheron established a Dutch factory at Archangel so early 
as 1584 ; and a growing trade sprang up with Russia by way of the 
White Sea, at first in rivalry with the English Muscovy Company. 
But a Dutch merchant, by name Isaac Massa, having succeeded in 
gaining the ear and confidence of the Tsar, Russian commerce gradu- 
ally became a Dutch monopoly. In 1614 a Muscovite embassy 
conducted by IVIassa came to the Hague, and access to the interior 
of Russia was opened to the traders of Holland and to them only. 

In the Mediterranean no less foresight and dexterity was shown 
in forwarding the interests of the States. The Advocate's son-in- 
law, Van der Myle, went in 1609 as ambassador to Venice ; and the 
following year the first Venetian envoy, Tommaso Contarini, 
arrived in Holland. In 161 2 Comelis Haga, who had been in Sweden, 
was sent to Constantinople to treat with the Turks about com- 
mercial privileges in the Levant and for the suppression of piracy, 
and he remained in the East in charge of the republic's interests 
for many years. 

More difficult was the maintenance of friendly relations with 
England. In 1604 James I had made peace with Spain; and the 
growing rivalry upon the seas between the Dutch and English 
tended to alienate his sympathies from the rising maritime power 
of the republic. He outwardly maintained friendly relations ; his 
ambassador had a seat on the Council of State; he retained his 
garrisons in the cautionary towns ; and after the signing of the truce 



122 THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 

he bestowed the Garter upon Prince Maurice. But at this very time. 
May, 1609, James took a step which was most hurtful to that 
industry which had laid the foundation of the commercial prosperity 
of Holland — this was the issuing of an edict imposing a tax on all 
foreigners fishing in English waters. Though general in its form, 
this edict was really directed against the right heretofore enjoyed 
by the Netherlanders to fish on the English coast, a right conferred 
by a series of treaties and never challenged since its confirmation 
by the Magnus Inter cur sus of 1496. Dutch public opinion was 
strongly aroused and a special embassy was sent to London, April, 
1 610, to protest against the edict and endeavour to procure its 
withdrawal or its modification. This was by no means an easy 
matter. The fisheries, on which a large part of the population of 
Holland and Zeeland depended for their livelihood, were of vital 
importance to the States. On the other hand their virtual monopoly 
by the Dutch caused keen resentment in England. In the latter part 
of the reign of Elizabeth that adventurous sea-faring spirit, which 
was destined eventually to plant the flag of England on the shores 
of every ocean, had come to the birth, and everywhere it found, 
during this early part of the 17th century, Dutch rivals already in 
possession and Dutch ships on every trading route. The Dutch 
mercantile marine in fact far exceeded the English in numbers 
and efficiency. The publication of Hugo Grotius' famous pamphlet, 
Mare Liherum, in March, 1609, was probably the final cause which 
decided James to issue his Fisheries' proclamation. The purpose of 
Grotius was to claim for every nation, as against the Portuguese, 
freedom of trade in the Indian Ocean, but the arguments he used 
appeared to King James and his advisers to challenge the dominium 
maris, which English kings had always claimed in the "narrow 
seas." The embassy of 1 610, therefore, had to deal not merely with 
the fisheries, but with the whole subject of the maritime relations 
of the two countries ; and a crowd of published pamphlets proves 
the intense interest that was aroused. But the emergence of the 
dispute as to the Jiilich-Cleves succession, and the change in the 
policy of the French government owing to the assassination of 
Henry IV, led both sides to desire an accommodation ; and James 
consented, not indeed to withdraw the edict, but to postpone its 
execution for two years. It remained a dead letter until 161 6, 
although all the time the wranglings over the legal aspects of the 



THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 123 

questions in dispute continued. The Republic, however, as an 
independent State, was very much hampered by the awkward fact 
of the cautionary towns remaining in English hands. The occupation 
of Flushing and Brill, commanding the entrances to important 
waterways, seemed to imply that the Dutch republic was to a 
certain extent a vassal state under the protection of England. 
Oldenbarneveldt resolved therefore to take advantage of King 
James' notorious financial embarrassments by offering to redeem 
the towns by a ready-money payment. The nominal indebtedness 
of the United Provinces for loans advanced by Elizabeth was 
;f 600,000 ; the Advocate offered in settlement £100,000 in cash and 
£150,000 more in half-yearly payments. James accepted the offer, 
and the towns were handed over, the garrisons being allowed to 
pass into the Dutch service, June 161 6. Sir Dudley Carleton, how- 
ever, who about this time succeeded Sir Ralph Winwood as English 
envoy at the Hague, continued to have a seat in the Council of 
State. 

Oldenbarneveldt thus, at a time when his dominant position in 
the State was already being undermined and his career drawing to 
an end, performed a great service to his country, the more so as 
King James, in his eagerness to negotiate a marriage between the 
Prince of Wales and a Spanish infanta, was beginning to allow his 
policy to be more and more controlled by the Count of Gondomar, 
the Spanish ambassador at Whitehall. James' leaning towards Spain 
naturally led him to regard with stronger disfavour the increasing 
predominance of the Dutch flag upon the seas, and it was not long 
before he was sorry that he had surrendered the cautionary towns. 
For the fishery rights and the principle of the dominium maris in the 
narrow seas were no longer the only questions in dispute between 
England and the States. English seamen and traders had other 
grievances to allege against the Hollanders in other parts of the 
world. The exclusive right to fish for whales in the waters of 
Spitsbergen and Greenland was claimed by the English on the 
ground of Hugh Willoughby's alleged discovery of Spitsbergen in 
1553. The Dutch would not admit any such claim, and asserted that 
Heemskerk was the first to visit the archipelago, and that he planted 
in 1596 the Dutch flag on the shores of the island, to which he gave 
the name of Spitsbergen. In 161 3 James conferred the monopoly 
upon the English Muscovy Company, who sent out a fishing fleet 



124 THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 

with orders to drive off any interlopers ; and certain Dutch vessels 
were attacked and plundered. The reply of the States- General was 
the granting of a charter, January 27, 16 14, to a company, known 
as the Northern or Greenland Company, with the monopoly of 
fishing between Davis' Straits and Nova Zembla ; and a fishing fleet 
was sent out accompanied by warships. The result was a temporary 
agreement between the English and Dutch companies for using 
separate parts of Spitsbergen as their bases, all others being 
excluded. Meanwhile the dispute was kept open, and despite 
conferences and negotiations neither side showed any disposition 
to yield. Matters reached an acute stage in 1 618. English and Dutch 
fishing fleets of exceptional strength sailed into the northern waters 
in the early summer of that year, and a fierce fight took place, which, 
as two Dutch war vessels were present, resulted in the scattering 
of the English vessels and considerable loss of life and property. 

The rivalry and opposition between the Dutch and English 
traders in the East-Indies was on a larger scale, but here there was 
no question of the Dutch superiority in force, and it was used 
remorselessly. The Dutch East India Company had thriven apace. 
In 1606 a dividend of 50 per cent, had been paid; in 1609 one of 
325 per cent. The chief factory was at Bantam, but there were many 
others on the mainland of India, and at Amboina, Banda, Ternate 
and Matsjan in the Moluccas; and from these centres trade was 
carried on with Ceylon, with Borneo and even with distant China 
and Japan. But the position of the company was precarious, until 
the secret article of the treaty of 1609 conceded liberty of trade 
during the truce. The chief need was to create a centre of adminis- 
tration, from which a general control could be exercised over all 
the officials at the various trading factories throughout the East- 
Indian archipelago. It was resolved, therefore, by the Council of 
Seventeen to appoint a director-general, who should reside at 
Bantam, armed with powers which made him, far removed as he 
was from interference by the home authorities, almost a sovereign 
in the extensive region which he administered. Jan Pieterszoon 
Koen, appointed in 16 14, was the first of a series of capable men by 
whose vigorous and sometimes unscrupulous action the Dutch 
company became rapidly the dominant power in the eastern seas, 
where their trade and influence overshadowed those of their European 
competitors. The most enterprising of those competitors were the 



THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 125 

English. Disputes quickly arose between the rival companies as to 
trading rights in the Moluccas, the Banda group and Amboina; 
and some islands, where the English had made treaties with the 
natives, were occupied by the Dutch, and the English expelled. 

Another grievance was the refusal of the States-General in 
1 61 6 to admit English dyed cloths into the United Provinces. 
This had caused especial irritation to King James. The manu- 
facture of woollen cloth and the exportation of wool had for 
long been the chief of English industries ; and the monopoly of the 
trade was, when James ascended the throne, in the hands of the 
oldest of English chartered companies, the Fellowship of Merchant 
Adventurers. The Adventurers held since 1598 their Court and 
Staple at Middelburg in Zeeland. The English had not learnt the 
art of finishing and dyeing the cloth that they wove ; it was imported 
in its unfinished state, and was then dyed and prepared for 
commerce by the Dutch. Some thousands of skilled hands found 
employment in Holland in this work. James, always impecunious, 
determined in 1 608, on the proposal of a certain Alderman Cockayne, 
to grant Cockayne a patent for the creation of a home-dyeing 
industry, reserving to the crown a monopoly for the sale of the 
goods. The Adventurers complained of this as a breach of their 
charter; and, after much bickering, the king in 161 5 settled the 
dispute by withdrawing the charter. Cockayne now hoped that the 
company he had formed would be a profitable concern, but he 
and the king were doomed to disappointment. The Estates of 
Holland refused to admit the English dyed cloths, and their example 
was followed by the other provinces and by the States- General. 
Cockayne became bankrupt, and in 1617 the king had to renew the 
charter of the Adventurers. James was naturally very sore at this 
rebuff, and he resolved upon reprisals by enforcing the proclama- 
tion of 1609 and exacting a toll from all foreign vessels fishing in 
British waters. Great was the indignation in Holland, and the fishing 
fleet in 1617 set sail with an armed convoy. A Scottish official named 
Browne, who came to collect the toll, was seized and carried as a 
prisoner to Holland. James at once laid hands on two Dutch skippers 
in the Thames, as hostages, and demanded satisfaction for the 
outrage upon his officer. Neither side would at first give way, and 
it was not until after some months that an accommodation was 
patched up. The general question of the fishery privileges remained 



126 



THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 



however just as far from settlement as ever, for the States stood 
firm upon their treaty rights. At4ength it was resolved by the States 
to send a special mission to England to discuss with the king the 
four burning questions embittering the relations between the two 
countries. The envoys arrived in London, December, 1618. For 
seven months the parleyings went on without any definite result 
being reached, and in August, 161 9, the embassy returned. Very 
important events had meanwhile been occurring both in the United 
Provinces and in Germany, which made it necessary to both parties 
that the decision on these trade questions, important as they were, 
should be postponed for awhile, as they were overshadowed by the 
serious political crises in Holland and in Bohemia, which were then 
occupying all men's attention. 



CHAPTER IX 

MAURICE AND OLDENBARNEVELDT 

The conclusion of the truce did not bring, with material progress 
and trade expansion, internal peace to the United Provinces. The 
relations between the Prince-stadholder and the all-powerful 
Advocate had long been strained. In the long-drawn-out negotia- 
tions Maurice had never disguised his dislike to the project of a 
truce, and, though he finally acquiesced, it was a sullen acquiescence. 
At first there was no overt breach between the two men, but 
Maurice, though he did not refuse to meet Oldenbarneveldt, was 
cold and unfriendly. He did not attempt to interfere with the old 
statesman's control of the machinery of administration or with his 
diplomatic activities, for he was naturally indolent and took little 
interest in politics. Had he been ambitious, he might many years 
before have obtained by general consent sovereign power, but he 
did not seek it. His passion was the study of military science. From 
his early youth he had spent his life in camps, and now he found 
himself without occupation. The enemies of Oldenbarneveldt seized 
the opportunity to arouse Maurice's suspicions of the Advocate's 
motives in bringing about the truce, and even to hint that he had 
been bribed with Spanish gold. Chief among these enemies was 
Francis van Aerssens, for a number of years ambassador of the 
States at Paris. Aerssens owed much to the Advocate, but he 
attributed his removal from his post at the French court to the 
decision of Oldenbarneveldt to replace him by his son-in-law. Van 
der Myle. He never forgave his recall, and alike by subtle in- 
sinuation and unscrupulous accusation, strove to blacken the 
character and reputation of his former benefactor. 

By a curious fatality it was the outbreak of fierce sectarian strife 
and dissension between the extreme and the moderate Calvinists 
which was eventually to change the latent hostility of Maurice to 
Oldenbarneveldt into open antagonism. Neither of the two men 
had strong religious convictions, but circumstances brought it 
about that they were to range themselves irrevocably on opposite 



128 MAURICE AND OLDENBARNEVELDT 

sides in a quarrel between fanatical theologians on the subject of 
predestination and grace. 
»i From early times Calvinism in the northern Netherlands had 
I been divided into two schools. The strict Calvinists or " Reformed/* 
\ known by their opponents as * ' Precisians," and the liberal Calvinists, 
"the Evangelicals," otherwise ''the Libertines." To this Libertine 
party belonged William the Silent, Oldenbarne veldt and the 
majority of the burgher-regents of Holland. These men regarded 
the religious question from the statesman's point of view. Having 
risen in rebellion against the tyranny of the Spanish Inquisition, 
they were anxious to preserve their countrymen (only a minority 
of whom were Protestants) from being placed under the heel of 
a religious intolerance as narrow and bigoted as that from which 
they had escaped. The ''Reformed" congregations on the other 
hand, led by the preachers, were anxious to summon a National 
Synod for the purpose of creating a State Church to whose tenets, 
rigidly defined by the Heidelberg catechism and the Netherland 
confession, all would be required to conform on pain of being 
deprived of their rights as citizens. The Libertines were opposed 
to such a scheme, as an interference with the rights of each province 
to regulate its own religious affairs, and as an attempt to assert the 
supremacy of Church over State. 

The struggle between the two parties, which had continued 
intermittently for a number of years, suddenly became acute 
through the appointment by Maurice of Jacob Harmensz, better 
known as Arminius, to the Chair of Theology at Leyden, vacated 
by the death of Junius in 1602. The leader of the strict Calvinist 
school, the learned Franciscus Gomarus, had at the time of the 
appointment of Arminius already been a professor at Leyden for 
eight years. Each teacher gathered round him a following of devoted 
disciples, and a violent collision was inevitable. Prolonged and heated 
controversy on the high doctrines of Predestination and Freewill 
led to many appeals being made to the States- General and to the 
Estates of Holland to convene a Synod to settle the disputed 
questions, but neither of these bodies in the midst of the negotia- 
tions for the truce was willing to complicate matters by taking a 
step that could not fail to accentuate existing discords. Six months 
after the truce was signed Arminius died. The quarrel, however, 
was only to grow more embittered. Johannes Uyttenbogaert took 



MAURICE AND OLDENBARNEVELDT 129 

the leadership of the Arminians, and finally, after consultation with 
Oldenbarneveldt, he called together a convention of Arminian 
preachers and laymen at Gouda (June, 16 10). They drew up for 
presentation to the Estates a petition, known as the Remonstratie^ 
consisting of five articles, in which they defined the points wherein 
they differed from the orthodox Calvinist doctrines on the subjects 
of predestination, election and grace. The Gomarists on their part 
drew up a Contra-Remonstratie containing seven articles, and they 
declined to submit to any decision on matters of doctrine, save 
from a purely Church Synod. These two weighty declarations 
gained for the two parties henceforth the names of Remonstrants 
and Contra- Remonstrants. For the next three years a fierce con- 
troversy raged in every province, pulpit replying to pulpit, and 
pamphlet to pamphlet. The Contra- Remonstrants roundly accused 
their adversaries of holding Pelagian and Socinian opinions and of 
being Papists in disguise. This last accusation drew to their side 
the great majority of the Protestant population, but the Remon- 
strants had many adherents among the burgher-regents, and they 
could count upon a majority in the Estates of Holland, Utrecht and 
Overyssel, and they had the powerful support of Oldenbarneveldt. 
The Advocate was no theologian, and on the doctrinal points in 
dispute he probably held no very clear views. He inclined, however, 
to the Arminians because of their greater tolerance, and above all 
for their readiness to acknowledge the authority of the State as 
supreme, in religious as well as in civil matters. He was anxious to 
bring about an accommodation which should give satisfaction to both 
parties, but he was dealing with fanatics, and the fires of religious 
bigotry when once kindled are difficult to quench. And now was 
seen a curious object lesson in the many-headed character of the 
government of the United Netherlands. A majority of the provinces 
in the States- General favoured the Contra- Remonstrants. The 
Estates of Holland, however, under the influence of Oldenbarne- 
veldt by a small majority refused the Contra- Remonstrant demand 
and resolved to take drastic action against the Gomarists. But a 
number of the representative towns in Holland, and among them 
Amsterdam, declined to enforce the resolution. At Rotterdam, on 
the other hand, andin the other town- councils, where the Arminians 
had the majority, the Gomarist preachers were expelled from their 
pulpits ; and the Advocate was determined by coercion, if necessary. 



E. H. H. 



130 MAURICE AND OLDENBARNEVELDT 

to enforce the authority of the Estates throughout the province. 
But coercion without the use of the military force was impossible 
in face of the growing uprising of popular passion ; and the military 
forces could not be employed without the consent of the stadholder. 
Thus in 1617, with the question of civil war in Holland trembling 
in the balance, the ultimate decision lay with the stadholder; and 
Maurice after long hesitation determined to throw the sword of the 
soldier into the scale against the influence of the statesman. 

Maurice had not as yet openly broken with his father's old friend, 
whose immense services to the republic during the greater part of 
four decades he fully recognised. As to the questions now in dispute 
the stadholder was to an even less degree than the Advocate a 
zealous theologian. It is reported that he declared that he did not 
know whether predestination w^as blue or green. His court- 
chaplain, Uyttenbogaert, was a leading Arminian; and both his 
step -mother, Louise (see p. 78), to whose opinions he attached 
much weight, and his younger brother, Frederick Henry, were by 
inclination "libertines." On the other hand William Lewis, the 
Frisian Stadholder, was a zealous Calvinist, and he used all his 
influence with his cousin to urge him to make a firm stand against 
Oldenbarneveldt, and those who were trying to overthrow the 
Reformed faith. Sir Dudley Carleton, the new English ambassador, 
ranged himself also as a strong opponent of the Advocate. While 
Maurice, however, was hesitating as to the action he should take, 
Oldenbarneveldt determined upon a step which amounted to a 
declaration of war. In December, 161 6, he carried in the Estates 
of Holland a proposal that they should, in the exercise of their 
sovereign rights, enlist a provincial force of 4000 militia {waard- 
gelders) in their pay. Thus Holland, though a strong minority in 
the Estates was in opposition, declared its intention of upholding 
the principle of provincial sovereignty against the authority of the 
States-General. The States- General at the instance of the two 
stadholders. May, 161 7, declared for the summoning of a National 
Synod by a vote of four provinces against three. The Estates of 
Holland, again with a sharp division of opinion but by a majority, 
declined to obey the summons. An impasse was thus reached and 
Maurice at last openly declared for the Contra- Remonstrant side. 

On July 23 the Prince, accompanied by his suite, ostentatiously 
attended divine service at the Cloister Church at the Hague, where 



MAURICE AND OLDENBARNEVELDT 131 

the Contra-Remonstrants had a fortnight before, in face of the 
prohibition of the Estates, estabHshed themselves. This step was 
countered by decisive action on the part of Oldenbarneveldt. A 
proposal was made in the Estates of Holland, August 4, known as 
the "Sharp Resolution" — and it well merited its name, for it was 
of the most drastic character. It was a most unqualified declaration 
of provincial sovereignty, and yet it was only passed in the teeth 
of a strong minority by the exertion of the Advocate's personal 
influence. By this resolution Holland decUned to assent to the 
summoning of any Synod, National or Provincial, and asserted the 
supremacy of the Estates in matters of religion. The municipal 
authorities were ordered to raise levies of Waardgelders to keep the 
peace ; and all officials, civil or military, were required to take an oath 
of obedience to the Estates on pain of dismissal. A strong protest 
was made by the representatives of the dissenting cities headed by 
Reinier Pauw, burgomaster of Amsterdam. 

On the plea of ill-health Oldenbarneveldt now left the Hague, 
and took up his residence at Utrecht. His object was to keep this 
province firm in its alUance with Holland. He did not return till 
November 6, but all the time he was in active correspondence with 
his party in Holland, at whose head were the three pensionaries of 
Rotterdam, Ley den and Haarlem — De Groot, Hoogerbeets and De 
Haan. Under their leadership levies of Waardgelders were made in 
a number of towns ; but other towns, including Amsterdam, refused, 
and the total levy did not amount to more than 1 800 men. Meanwhile 
the majority of the States- General, urged on by Maurice and William 
Lewis, were determined, despite the resistance of Holland and 
Utrecht, to carry through the proposal for the summoning of a 
National Synod. Overyssel had been overawed and persuaded to 
assent, so that there were five votes against two in its favour. All 
through the winter the wrangling went on, and estrangement 
between the contending parties grew more bitter and acute. A 
perfect flood of pamphlets, broadsheets and pasquinades issued from 
the press ; and in particular the most violent and envenomed attacks 
were made upon the character and administration of the Advocate, 
in which he was accused of having received bribes both from Spanish 
and French sources and to have betrayed the interests of his country. 
The chief instigator of these attacks was Oldenbarneveldt's personal 
enemy, Francis van Aerssens, whose pen was never idle. The 

9—2 



132 MAURICE AND OLDENBARNEVELDT 

defenders of the Remonstrant cause and of the principles of 
provincial sovereignty were not lacking in the vigour and virulence 
of their replies ; and the Advocate himself felt that the accusations 
which were made against him demanded a formal and serious 
rejoinder. He accordingly prepared a long and careful defence of 
his whole career, in which he proved conclusively that the charges 
made against him had no foundation. This Remonstratie he addressed 
to the Estates of Holland, and he also sent a copy to the Prince. If 
this document did not at the time avail to silence the voices of 
prejudiced adversaries whose minds were made up, it has at least 
had the effect of convincing posterity that, however unwise may 
have been the course now deliberately pursued by the Advocate, 
he never for the sake of personal gain betrayed the interests of his 
country. Had he now seen that the attempt of a majority in the 
Estates of Holland to resist the will of the majority in the States- 
General could only lead to civil war, and had he resigned his post, 
advising the Estates to disband the Waardgelders and yield to superior 
force, a catastrophe might have been averted. There is no reason 
to believe that in such circumstances Maurice would have counte- 
nanced any extreme harshness in dealing with the Advocate. But 
Oldenbarne veldt, long accustomed to the exercise of power, was 
determined not to yield one jot of the claim of the sovereign 
province of Holland to supremacy within its own borders in matters 
of religion. The die was cast and the issue had to be decided by 
force of arms. 

On June 28, 161 8, a solemn protest was made by the Advocate 
in the States-General against the summoning of a National Synod 
in opposition to the expressed opinion of the Estates of Holland ; 
and a threat was made that Holland might withhold her contribu- 
tion to the general fund. The majority of the States- General (July 9) 
declared the raising of local levies illegal, and (July 23) it was 
resolved that a commission be sent to Utrecht with Maurice at its 
head to demand the disbanding of the Waardgelders in that town. 

The Estates of Holland^ impelled by Oldenbarneveldt now took 
a very strong step, a step which could not be retrieved. They 
resolved also to despatch commissioners to Utrecht to urge the 
town-council to stand firm. De Groot, Hoogerbeets and two others 

^ It must be remembered that the States- General and the Holland Estates 
sat in the same building. 



MAURICE AND OLDENBARNEVELDT 13^^ 

were nominated, and they at once set out for Utrecht. Maurice, with 
the deputation from the States- General and a large suite, left the 
Hague only a little later than De Groot and his companions, and 
reached Utrecht on the evening of the 25th. This strange situation 
lasted for several days, and much parleying and several angry 
discussions took place. Matters were further complicated by the 
news that the dissentient towns of Holland were also sending a 
deputation. This news had a considerable effect upon Colonel Ogle, 
the commander of the Waardgelders in Utrecht, and his officers. 
They were already wavering ; they now saw that resistance to the 
orders of the States- General would be useless. The Prince, who 
had been collecting a body of troops, now determined on action. 
His force entered the city on the evening of the 31st, and on the 
following morning he commanded the local levies to lay down their 
arms. They at once obeyed, and Maurice took possession of the 
city. The Holland commissioners and the members of the town- 
council fled. Maurice appointed a new town-council entirely 
Contra-Remonstrant ; and changes were made in both branches of 
the Estates, so as to secure a Contra- Remonstrant majority and 
with it the vote of the province in the States- General for the 
National Synod. Holland now stood alone, and its opposition had 
to be dealt with in a fashion even sterner than that of Utrecht. 

The Remonstrant cities of Holland were still for resistance, and 
attempts were made to influence the stadholder not to resort to 
extreme measures. Maurice had, however, made up his mind. On 
August 18 the States- General passed a resolution demanding the 
dismissal of the Waardgelders in Holland within twenty-four hours. 
The placard was published on the 20th and was immediately 
obeyed. The Estates of Holland had been summoned to meet on 
the 2ist, and were at once called upon to deal with the question of 
the National Synod. A few days later (August 28) a secret resolution 
was adopted by the majority in the States- General, without the 
knowledge of the Holland deputies, to arrest Oldenbarneveldt, De 
Groot, Hoogerbeets and Ledenburg, the secretary of the Estates of 
Utrecht, on the ground that their action in the troubles at Utrecht 
had been dangerous to the State. On the following day the Advocate, 
on his way to attend the meeting of the Estates, was arrested and 
placed in confinement. De Groot, Hoogerbeets and Ledenburg 
met with similar treatment. After protesting the Estates adjourned 



134 MAURICE AND OLDENBARNEVELDT 

on the 30th until September 12, the deputies alleging that it was 
necessary to consult their principals in this emergency, but in 
reality because the suddenness of the blow had stricken them with 
terror. It was a prudent step, for Maurice was resolved to purge the 
Estates and the town-councils of Holland, as he had already purged 
those of Utrecht. Attended by a strong body-guard he went from 
town to town, changing the magistracies, so as to place everywhere 
the Contra- Remonstrants in power. As a consequence of this action 
the deputies sent by the towns were likewise changed ; and, when the 
Estates next met, the supporters of Oldenbarneveldt and his policy 
had disappeared. A peaceful revolution had been accomplished. All 
opposition to the summoning of the Synod was crushed; and 
(November 9) the Estates passed a vote of thanks to the stadholder 
for "the care and fidelity " with which he had discharged a difficult 
and necessary duty. 

Meanwhile Oldenbarneveldt and the other prisoners had been 
confined in separate rooms in the Binnenhof and were treated with 
excessive harshness and severity. They were permitted to have no 
communication with the outside world, no books, paper or writing 
materials ; and the conditions of their imprisonment were such as 
to be injurious to health. A commission was appointed by the States- 
General to examine the accused, and it began its labours in November. 
The method of procedure was unjust and unfair in the extreme, 
even had it been a case of dealing with vile criminals. The treatment 
of Oldenbarneveldt in particular was almost indecently harsh. The 
aged statesman had to appear sixty times before the commission 
and was examined and cross-examined on every incident of the 
forty years of his administration and on every detail of his private 
life. He was allowed not only to have no legal adviser, but also was 
forbidden access to any books of reference or to any papers or to 
make any notes. It was thus hoped that, having to trust entirely 
to his memory, the old man might be led into self-contradictions 
or to making damaging admissions against himself. De Groot and 
Hoogerbeets had to undergo a similar, though less protracted, 
inquisition. Such was its effect upon Ledenburg that he committed 
suicide. 

It was not until February 20, 1619, that the States- General 
appointed an extraordinary court for the trial of the accused. It 
consisted of twenty-four members, of whom twelve were Hollanders. 



MAURICE AND OLDENBARNEVELDT 135 

It is needless to say that such a court had no legal status ; and the 
fact that nearly all its members were the Advocate's personal or 
political enemies is a proof that the proceedings were judicial only 
in name. It was appointed not to try, but to condemn the prisoners. 
Oldenbarneveldt protested in the strongest terms against the court's 
competence. He had been the servant of the Estates of the sovereign 
province of Holland, and to them alone was he responsible. He 
denied to the States- General any sovereign rights ; they were simply 
an assembly representing a number of sovereign allies. These were 
bold statements, and they were accompanied by an absolute denial 
of the charges brought against him. It was quite useless. All the 
prisoners were condemned, first De Groot, then Hoogerbeets, then 
Oldenbarneveldt. The trials were concluded on May i, but it was 
resolved to defer the sentences until after the close of the National 
Synod, which had been meeting at Dordrecht. This took place on 
May 9. 

Meanwhile strong and influential efforts were made for leniency. 
The French ambassador, Aubrey du Maurier, during the trial did 
his utmost to secure fair treatment for the Advocate ; and a special 
envoy, Chatillon, was sent from Paris to express the French king's 
firm belief in the aged statesman's integrity and patriotism based 
on an intimate knowledge of all the diplomatic proceedings during 
and after the negotiations for the Truce. But these representations 
had no effect and were indeed resented. Equally unfruitful were 
the efforts made by Louise de Coligny to soften the severity of her 
step-son's attitude. Even William Lewis wrote to Maurice not to 
proceed too harshly in the matter. All was in vain. The Prince's 
heart was steeled. He kept asking whether the Advocate or his 
family had sued for pardon. But Oldenbarneveldt was far too proud 
to take any step which implied an admission of guilt ; and all the 
members of his family were as firmly resolved as he was not to 
supplicate for grace. Few, however, believed that capital punish- 
ment would be carried out. On Sunday, May 12, however, sentence 
of death was solemnly pronounced ; and on the following morning 
the head of the great statesman and patriot was stricken off on a 
scaffold erected in the Binnenhof immediately in front of the 
windows of Maurice's residence. The Advocate's last words were 
a protestation of his absolute innocence of the charge of being a 
traitor to his country; and posterity has endorsed the declaration. 



136 MAURICE AND OLDENBARNEVELDT 

That Oldenbarneveldt had in the last two years of his life acted 
indiscreetly and arrogantly there can be no question. His long 
tenure of power had made him impatient of contradiction; and, 
having once committed himself to a certain course of action, he 
determined to carry it through in the teeth of opposition, regardless 
of consequences and with a narrow obstinacy of temper that aroused 
bitter resentment. His whole correspondence and private papers 
were however seized and carefully scrutinised by his personal 
enemies ; and, had they found any evidence to substantiate the 
charges brought against him, it would have been published to the 
world. It is clear that not a shred of such evidence was discovered, 
and that the Advocate was perfectly innocent of the treasonable 
conduct for which a packed court condemned him to suffer death. 
Such was the reward that Oldenbarneveldt received for life-long 
services of priceless value to his country. He more than any other 
man was the real founder of the Dutch Republic ; and it will remain 
an ineffaceable stain on Maurice's memory that he was consenting 
unto this cruel and unjust sentence. 

Sentences of imprisonment for life were passed upon De Groot 
and Hoogerbeets. They were confined in the castle of Loevestein. 
The conditions of captivity were so far relaxed that the famous 
jurist was allowed to receive books for the continuance of his 
studies. Through the ingenuity and daring of his wife De Groot 
contrived to escape in 1621 by concealing himself in a trunk 
supposed to be filled with heavy tomes. The trunk was conveyed 
by water to Rotterdam, from whence the prisoner managed to make 
his way safely to France. 

Concurrently with the political trials the National Synod had 
been pursuing its labours at Dordrecht. On November 13 rather 
more than one hundred delegates assembled under the presidency 
of Johannes Bogerman of Leeuwarden. Fifty-eight of the delegates 
were preachers, professors and elders elected by the provincial 
synods, fifteen were commissioners appointed by the States-General, 
twenty-eight were members of foreign Reformed churches. English 
and Scottish representatives took an active part in the proceedings. 
The Synod decided to summon the Remonstrants to send a deputa- 
tion to make their defence. On December 6 accordingly, a body of 
twelve leading Remonstrants with Simon Episcopius at their head 
took their seats at a table facing the assembly. Episcopius made a 



MAURICE AND OLDENBARNEVELDT 137 

long harangue in Latin occuppng nine sessions. His eloquence was, 
however, wasted on a court that had already prejudged the cause 
for which he pleaded. After much wrangling and many recrimina- 
tions Bogerman ordered the Remonstrants to withdraw. They did 
so only to meet in an "anti-synod" at Rotterdam at which the 
authority^ of the Dordrecht assembly to pronounce decisions on 
matters of faith was denied. Meanwhile the Contra- Remonstrant 
divines at Dordrecht during many weary sessions proceeded to 
draw up a series of canons defining the true Reformed doctrine 
and condemning utterly, as false and heretical, the five points set 
forth in the Remonstrance. On May i the Nether land confession 
and the Heidelberg catechism were unanimously adopted, as being 
in conformity with Holy Scripture, and as fixing the standard of 
orthodox teaching. The Synod was dissolved eight days later. The 
final session was the 1 54th ; and this great assembly of delegates 
from many lands, the nearest approach to a general council of the 
Protestant churches that has ever been held, came to a close amidst 
much festivity and no small congratulation. No time was lost in 
taking action by the dominant party against their opponents. Two 
hundred Remonstrant preachers were driven into exile; and the 
congregations were treated with the same spirit of intolerance as 
had hitherto been the lot of the Catholics, and were forbidden the 
exercise of public worship. 

After the Advocate's death, except for the persecution directed 
against the Remonstrant party, the course of public affairs went on 
smoothly. ]\Iaurice, who by the death of his brother, PhiUp William, 
had in Februar}^, 1618, become Prince of Orange, was virtually 
sovereign in the United Provinces. His name appeared in treaties 
with eastern potentates and in diplomatic despatches, just as if he 
were a reigning monarch ; and the people of the Netherlands were 
even at times spoken of as his subjects. But Maurice never cared 
to trouble himself about the details of poHtics, and he now left the 
management of affairs in the hands of a few men that he could 
trust, notably in those of Francis van Aerssens (henceforth generally 
known as lord of Sommelsdijk) and Reinier Pauw, the influential 
burgomaster of Amsterdam. Aerssens had shown himself spiteful 
and vindictive in his conduct towards his earlier patron, Olden- 
barneveldt, but being a clever diplomatist and gifted with con- 
siderable powers of statesmanship, he became henceforth for many 



138 MAURICE AND OLDENBARNEVELDT 

years the trusted adviser and confidant not only of Maurice, but of 
his successor Frederick Henry. 

The year 1620 was marked by the sudden death in June of 
William Lewis, the Stadholder of Friesland. His loss was much 
deplored by Maurice, who had for years been accustomed to rely 
upon the tried experience and sound judgment of his cousin both 
in peace and war. A few months earlier (March) Louise de Coligny 
had died at Fontainebleau. She too had been from his youth the 
wise adviser of her step -son, but she was deeply grieved at the fate 
of Oldenbarneveldt, and after his execution left the Netherlands 
to take up her residence in her native country. By the death of 
William Lewis the two stadholderates of Groningen with Drente 
and of Friesland became vacant. Maurice succeeded to that of 
Groningen, but the Frieslanders remained faithful to the house of 
Nassau-Siegen and elected Ernest Casimir, the younger brother of 
William Lewis, as their stadholder. 



CHAPTER X 

FROM THE END OF THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 
TO THE PEACE OF MUENSTER (1621-48). THE STAD- 
HOLDERATE OF FREDERICK HENRY OF ORANGE 

Civil disturbances and religious persecutions were not the only 
causes of anxiety to the political leaders in the United Provinces 
during the crisis of 161 8-19; foreign affairs were also assuming a 
menacing aspect. The year 161 8 saw the opening in Germany of 
the Thirty Years' War. The acceptance of the Crown of Bohemia 
by Frederick, Elector Palatine, meant that the long-delayed struggle 
for supremacy between Catholics and Protestants was to be fought 
out ; and it was a struggle which neither Spain nor the Netherlands 
could watch with indifference. Maurice was fully alive to the 
necessity of strengthening the defences of the eastern frontier ; and 
subsidies were granted by the States- General to Frederick and also 
to some of the smaller German princes. This support would have 
been larger, but the unexpected refusal of James I to give aid to 
his son-in-law made the Dutch doubtful in their attitude. The 
States, though friendly, were unwilling to commit themselves. In 
the spring of 1620, however, by James' permission, the English 
regiments in the Dutch service under the command of Sir Horace 
Vere were sent to oppose Spinola's invasion of the Rhineland. 
Accompanied by a Dutch force under Frederick Henry, they 
reached the Palatinate, but it was too late. The fate of the King of 
Bohemia was soon to be decided elsewhere than in his hereditary 
dominions. Completely defeated at the battle of Prague, Frederick 
with his wife and family fled to Holland to seek the protection of 
their cousin, the Prince of Orange. They met with the most generous 
treatment at his hands, and they were for many years to make the 
Hague the home of their exile. 

As the date at which the Twelve Years' Truce came to an end 
drew near, some efforts were made to avert war. There were 
advocates of peace in the United Provinces, especially in Gelder- 
land and Overyssel, the two provinces most exposed to invasion. 



140 END OF THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 

The archdukes had no desire to re-open hostilities ; and Pecquinius, 
the Chancellor of Brabant, was sent to the Hague to confer with 
Maurice, and was authorised to name certain conditions for the 
conclusion of a peace. These conditions proved, however, to be 
wholly unacceptable, and the early summer of 1621 saw Maurice 
and Spinola once more in the field at the head of rival armies. The 
operations were, however, dilatory and inconclusive. The stad- 
holder now, and throughout his last campaigns, was no longer 
physically the same man as in the days when his skilful generalship 
had saved the Dutch republic from overthrow; he had lost the 
brilliant energy of youth. The deaths in the course of this same 
year, 1621, of both the Archduke Albert and Philip HI of Spain, 
were also hindrances to the vigorous prosecution of the war. In 
1622 there was much marching and counter- marching, and Maurice 
was successful in compelling Spinola to raise the siege of Bergen- 
op-Zoom, the last success he was destined to achieve. In the course 
of this year the prince's life was in serious danger. A plot was laid 
to assassinate him on his way to Ryswyck, the leading conspirator 
being William van Stoutenberg, the younger son of Oldenbarne- 
veldt. Stoutenberg had, in 16 19, been deprived of his posts and 
his property confiscated, and he wished to avenge his father's death 
and his own injuries. The plot was discovered, but Stoutenberg 
managed to escape and took service under the Archduchess Isabel. 
Unfortunately he had implicated his elder brother, Regnier, lord 
of Groeneveldt, in the scheme. Groeneveldt was seized and brought 
to the scaffold. 

From this time nothing but misfortune dogged the steps of 
Maurice, whose health began to give way under the fatigues of 
campaigning. In 1623 a carefully planned expedition against 
Antwerp, which he confidently expected to succeed, was frustrated 
by a long continuance of stormy weather. Spinola in the following 
year laid siege to Breda. This strongly fortified town, an ancestral 
domain of the Princes of Orange, had a garrison of 7000 men. The 
Spanish commander rapidly advancing completely invested it. 
Maurice, who had been conducting operations on the eastern 
frontier, now hastened to Breda, and did his utmost by cutting oflF 
Spinola's own supplies to compel him to raise the blockade. All his 
efforts however failed, and after holding out for many months 
Breda surrendered. In the spring of 1625 the prince became so 



TO THE PEACE OF MUENSTER 141 

seriously ill that he asked the States- General to appoint his fcrother) 
commander-in-chief in his stead. Feeling his end drawing near, 
Maurice's chief wish was to see Frederick Henry married before 
his death. Frederick Henry, like Maurice himself, had never shown 
any inclination for wedlock and there was no heir to the family. He 
had, however, been attracted by the Countess Amalia von Solms, 
a lady of the suite of Elizabeth of Bohemia. Under pressure from 
the dying man the preliminaries were speedily arranged, and the 
wedding was quietly celebrated on April 4. Though thus hastily 
concluded, the marriage proved to be in every way a thoroughly 
happy one. Amalia was throughout his life to be the wise adviser 
of her husband and to exercise no small influence in the conduct 
of public affairs. Maurice died on April 23, in the fifty-eighth year 
of his age. His forty years of continuous and strenuous service to 
the State had made him prematurely old ; and there can be but 
little doubt that the terrible anxieties of the crisis of 1618-19 told 
upon him. Above all a feeling of remorse for his share in the 
tragedy of Oldenbarneveldt's death preyed upon his mind. 

The new Prince of Orange succeeded to a difficult position, but 
he was endowed with all the qualities of a real leader of men. 
Forty-one years old and brought up from boyhood in camps under 
the eye of his brother, Frederick Henry was now to show that he 
was one of the most accomplished masters of the military art, and 
especially siege-craft, in an age of famous generals, for Bernard of 
Saxe- Weimar, Torstenson, Turenne, Charles Gustavus and the 
Great Elector were all trained in his school. He was, however, much 
more than an experienced and resourceful commander in the field. 
He inherited much of his father's wary and tactful statesmanship 
and skill in diplomacy. He was, moreover, deservedly popular. He 
was a Hollander born and bred, and his handsome face, chivalrous 
bearing, and conciliatory genial temper, won for him an influence, 
which for some years was to give him almost undisputed pre- 
dominance in the State. To quote the words of a contemporary, 
Van der Capellen, "the prince in truth disposed of everything as 
he liked; everything gave way to his word." 

The offices and dignities held by Maurice were at once conferred 
on Frederick Henry. He was elected Stadholder of Holland, Zeeland, 
Utrecht, Gelderland and Overyssel, and was appointed Captain- 
General and Admiral- General of the Union and head of the Council 



142 END OF THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 

of State. During practically the whole of his life the prince spent 
a considerable part of the year in camp, but he was able all the time 
to keep in touch with home affairs, and to exercise a constant 
supervision and control of the foreign policy of the State by the 
help of his wife, and through the services of Francis van Aerssens. 
The Court of the Princess of Orange, graced as it was by the 
presence of the exiled King and Queen of Bohemia, was brilliant 
and sumptuous, and gave to the reality of power possessed by the 
stadholder more than a semblance of sovereign pomp. During her 
husband's absence she spared no pains to keep him well-acquainted 
with all the currents and under-currents of action and opinion at 
the Hague, and was not only able to give sound advice, but was 
quite ready, when necessity called, to meet intrigue with intrigue and 
render abortive any movements or schemes adverse to the prince's 
policy or authority. The obligations of Frederick Henry to Aerssens 
were even greater. The stadholder was at first suspicious of the 
man, whom he disliked for the leading part he had taken against 
Oldenbarneveldt. But he did not allow personal prejudice to 
prevent him from employing a diplomatist of Aerssens' experience 
and capacity, and, with acquaintance, he learned to regard him, not 
merely as a clever and wise councillor, but as a confidential friend. 

The right conduct of foreign affairs was of peculiar importance 
at the moment, when Frederick Henry became stadholder, for a 
change of regime took place almost simultaneously both in France 
and England. In Paris Cardinal Richelieu had just laid firm hands 
upon the reins of power, and the timorous and feeble James I died 
in the autumn of 1625. Richelieu and Charles I were both hostile 
to Spain, and the republic had reason to hope for something more 
than friendly neutrality in the coming years of struggle with the 
united forces of the two Habsburg monarchies. 

One of the chief difficulties which confronted the new stadholder 
was the religious question. The prince himself, as was well known, 
was inclined to Remonstrant opinions. He was, however, anxious 
not to stir up the smouldering embers of sectarian strife, and he 
made no effort to withdraw the placards against the Remonstrants, 
but confined himself to moderate in practice their severity. He 
recalled from exile Van der Myle, Oldenbarneveldt's son-in-law; 
made Nicholas van Reigersberg, De Groot's brother-in-law, a 
member of the council ; and released Hoogerbeets from his captivity 



TO THE PEACE OF MUENSTER 143 

at Loevestein. When, however, De Groot himself, presuming on 
the stadholder's goodwill, ventured to return to Holland without 
permission, the prince refused to receive him and he was ordered 
to leave the country once more. 

The year 1626 was marked by no events of military importance; 
both sides were in lack of funds and no offensive operations were 
undertaken. Much rejoicing, however, attended the birth of a son 
and heir to the Prince of Orange, May 27. The child received the 
name of William. Early in the following year Sir Dudley Carleton, 
as envoy-extraordinary of King Charles I, invested Frederick Henry 
at the Hague with the Order of the Garter. This high distinction 
was not, however, a mark of really friendlier relations between the 
two countries. The long-standing disputes as to fishing rights in 
the narrow seas and at Spitsbergen, and as to trading spheres in 
the East Indian Archipelago, remained unsettled; and in the 
unfortunate and ill-considered war, which broke out at this time 
between England and France, the sympathies of the States wei'e 
with the latter. Already those close relations between the French 
and the Dutch, which for the next decade were to be one of the 
dominating factors in determining the final issue of the Thirty 
Years' War, were by the diplomatic efforts of Richelieu and of 
Aerssens being firmly established. France advanced to the States 
a large subsidy by the aid of which the stadholder was enabled to 
take the field at the head of a really fine army and to give to the 
world a brilliant display of his military abilities. Throughout his 
stadholderate the persistent aim which Frederick Henry held 
before himself was never aggression with a view to conquest, but 
the creation of a scientific frontier, covered by strong fortresses, 
within which the flat lands behind the defensive lines of the great 
rivers could feel reasonably secure against sudden attack. It was 
with this object that in 1629 ^^ determined to lay siege to the town 
of Hertogenbosch. A force of 24,000 infantry and 4000 cavalry were 
gathered together for the enterprise. It was composed of many 
nationalities, like all the armies commanded by Maurice and 
Frederick Henry, but was admirably disciplined and devoted to its 
commander. Four English, three Scottish and four French 
regiments, all choice troops, raised by permissionof their sovereigns 
for the service of the States, formed the backbone of the force. On 
April 30 the town was invested. 



144 END OF THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 

Hertogenbosch, or Bois-le-duc, was strongly fortified, and so 
surrounded by marshy ground, intersected by a number of small 
streams, that the only way of approach for a besieging force was 
a single causeway defended by the forts of St Isabella and St 
Anthony. The garrison consisted of 8000 men, and the governor, 
Grobendonc, was an experienced and resolute soldier. 

The stadholder began by surrounding the town with a double 
line of circumvallation. The marshes were crossed by dykes, and 
two streams were dammed so as to fill a broad deep moat round 
the lines and flood the country outside. Other lines, three miles long, 
connected the investing lines with the village of Crevecoeur on the 
Meuse, Frederick Henry's base of supplies, which were brought 
by water from Holland. These works completed, approaches were 
at once opened against the forts of St Anthony and St Isabella, the 
task being entrusted to the English and French troops. The court 
of Brussels now began to take serious measures for relieving the 
town. At first regarding Bolduc la pucelle as impregnable, they had 
been pleased to hear that the prince had committed himself to an 
enterprise certain to be a dismal failure. Then came the news of the 
circumvallation, and with it alarm. The Count de Berg was therefore 
ordered (June 17) at the head of an army of 30,000 foot and 7000 
horse to advance into North Brabant and raise the siege. But the 
stadholder was prepared and ceaselessly on his guard; and the 
Spanish general, after several vain attempts, found the Dutch lines 
unassailable. With the view of compelling Frederick Henry to 
follow him. Berg now marched into the heart of the United 
Provinces, devastating as he went with fire and sword, took 
Amersfoort and threatened Amsterdam. But the prince confined 
himself to despatching a small detached force of observation ; and 
meanwhile a happy stroke, by which a certain Colonel Dieden 
surprised and captured the important frontier fortress of Wesel, 
forced the Spaniards to retreat, for Wesel was Berg's depot of 
supplies and munitions. 

While all this was going on the Prince of Orange had been 
pushing forward the siege operations. On July 17 the forts of 
St Isabella and St Anthony were stormed. The attack against the 
main defences, in which the English regiments specially distin- 
guished themselves, was now pressed with redoubled vigour. The 
resistance at every step was desperate, but at last the moat was 



TO THE PEACE OF MUENSTER 145 

crossed and a lodgment effected within the walls. On September 14 
Hertogenbosch surrendered; and the virgin fortress henceforth 
became the bulwark of the United Provinces against Spanish attack 
on this side. The consummate engineering skill, with which the in- 
vestment had been carried out, attracted the attention of all Europe 
to. this famous siege. It was a signal triumph and added greatly to 
the stadholder^s popularity and influence in the republic. 

It was needed. The Estates of Holland were at this time once 
more refractory. The interests of this great commercial and maritime 
province differed from those of the other provinces of the Union ; 
and it bore a financial burden greater than that of all the others put 
together. The Estates, then under the leadership of Adrian Pauw, 
the influential pensionary of Amsterdam, declined to raise the quota 
of taxation assigned to the province for military needs and proceeded 
to disband a number of troops that were in their pay. Inconsistently 
with this action they declined to consider certain proposals for 
peace put forward by the Infanta Isabel, for they would yield 
nothing on the questions of liberty of worship or of freedom to 
trade in the Indies. Their neglect to furnish the requisite supplies 
for the war, however, prevented the prince from undertaking any 
serious military operations in 1630. Fortunately the other side were 
in no better case financially, while the death of Spinola and the 
withdrawal of the Count de Berg from the Spanish service deprived 
them of their only two competent generals. This attitude of Holland, 
though it thwarted the stadholder's plans and was maintained in 
opposition to his wishes, by no means however implied any distrust 
of him or lack of confidence in his leadership. This was conclusively 
proved by the passing, at the instigation of Holland, of the Acte de 
Survivance (April 19, 163 1). This Act declared all the various offices 
held by the prince hereditary in the person of his five-year-old son. 
He thus became, in all but name, a constitutional sovereign. 

An expedition planned for the capture of Dunkirk at this time, 
spring 1 63 1, proved too hazardous and was abandoned, but later 
in the year the Dutch sailors gave a signal proof of their superiority 
at sea. Encouraged by the failure of the attempted attack on Dunkirk 
the government at Brussels determined on a counter-stroke. A 
flotilla of 35 frigates, accompanied by a large number of smaller 
vessels to carry supplies and munitions and having on board a body 
of 6000 soldiers, set sail from Antwerp under the command of 

E. H. H. 10 



146 END OF THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 

Count John of Nassau (a cousin of the stadholder) and in the 
presence of Isabel herself to effect the conquest of some of the 
Zeeland islands. As soon as the news reached Frederick Henry, 
detachments of troops were at once despatched to various points ; 
and about a dozen vessels were rapidly equipped and ordered to 
follow the enemy and if possible bring him to action. A landing at 
Terscholen was foiled by Colonel Morgan, who, at the head of 2000 
English troops, waded across a shallow estuary in time to prevent 
a descent. At last (September 12) the Dutch ships managed to come 
up with their adversaries in the Slaak near the island of Tholen. 
They at once attacked and though so inferior in numbers gained 
a complete victory. Count John of Nassau just contrived to escape, 
but his fleet was destroyed and 5000 prisoners were taken. 

The year 1632 witnessed a renewal of military activity and was 
memorable for the famous siege and capture of Maestricht. This 
fortress held the same commanding position on the eastern frontier 
as Hertogenbosch on the southern ; and, though its natural position 
was not so strong as the capital of North Brabant, Maestricht, lying 
as it did on both sides of the broad Meuse, and being strongly 
fortified and garrisoned, was very difficult to invest. The stad- 
holder, at the head of a force of 17,000 infantry and 4000 horse, first 
made himself master of Venloo and Roeremonde and then advanced 
upon Maestricht. Unfortunately before Roeremonde, Ernest Casi- 
mir, the brave stadholder of Friesland and Groningen, was killed. 
He was succeeded in his offices by his son, Henry Casimir. 
Arriving (June 10) before Maestricht, Frederick Henry proceeded 
to erect strongly entrenched lines of circumvallation round the town 
connecting them above and below the town by bridges. Supplies 
reached him plentifully by the river. To the English and French 
regiments were once more assigned the place of honour in the 
attack. All went well until July 2, when Don Gonzales de Cordova 
led a superior Spanish force from Germany, consisting of 18,000 
foot and 6000 horse, to raise the siege, and encamped close to the 
Dutch lines on the south side of the river. Finding however no 
vulnerable spot, he awaited the arrival at the beginning of August 
of an Imperialist army of 12,000 foot and 4000 horse, under the 
renowned Pappenheim. This impetuous leader determined upon 
an assault, and the Dutch entrenchments were attacked suddenly 
with great vigour at a moment when the prince was laid up with 



TO THE PEACE OF MUENSTER 147 

the gout. He rose, however, from his bed, personally visited all the 
points of danger, and after desperate fighting the assailants were at 
last driven off with heavy loss. The Spaniards and Imperialists, 
finding that the stadholder's lines could not be forced, instituted 
a blockade, so that the besiegers were themselves besieged. But 
Frederick Henry had laid up such ample stores of munitions and 
provisions that he paid no heed to the cutting of his communica- 
tions, and pushed on his approaches with the utmost rapidity. All 
difficulties were overcome by the engineering skill of the scientific 
commander ; and finally two tunnels sixty feet deep were driven 
under the broad dry moat before the town walls. The English 
regiments during these operations bore the brunt of the fighting 
and lost heavily. Colonels Harwood and the Earl of Oxford being 
killed and Colonel Morgan dangerously wounded. After exploding 
a mine, a forlorn hope of fifty English troops rushed out from one 
of the tunnels and made good their footing upon the ramparts. 
Others followed, and the garrison, fearing that further resistance 
might entail the sacking of the town, surrendered (August 23) with 
honours of war. 

One result of the fall of Maestricht was a renewal on the part of 
the Archduchess Isabel of negotiations for peace or a long truce. 
On the authority of Frederick Henry's memoirs the terms first 
offered to him in camp were favourable and might have been 
accepted. When, however, the discussion was shifted to the Hague, 
the attitude of the Belgic representatives had stiffened. The cause 
was not far to seek, for on November 6, 1632 the ever- victorious 
Gustavus Adolphus had fallen in the hour of triumph in the fatal 
battle of Liitzen. The death of the Swedish hero was a great blow 
to the Protestant cause and gave fresh heart to the despondent 
Catholic alliance. The negotiations dragged however their slow 
length along, the chief point of controversy being the old dispute 
about freedom to trade in the Indies. On this point agreement was 
impossible. Spain would yield nothing of her pretensions ; and the 
Hollanders would hear of no concessions that threatened the 
prosperity of the East and West India Companies in which so many 
merchants and investors were deeply interested. Any admission of 
a Spanish monopoly or right of exclusion would have spelt ruin to 
thousands. The diplomatic discussions, however, went on for many 
months in a desultory and somewhat futile manner ; and meanwhile 

10 — 2 



148 END OF THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 

though hostilities did not actually cease, the campaign of 1633 was 
conducted in a half-hearted fashion . The death of Isabel on November 
29, 1633, shattered finally any hopes that the peace party in the 
Provinces (for there was a strong peace party) might have had of 
arriving at any satisfactory agreement. By the decease of the arch- 
duchess, who had been a wise and beneficent ruler and had 
commanded the respect and regard not only of her own subjects 
but of many northerners also, the Belgic provinces reverted to the 
crown of Spain and passed under the direct rule of Philip IV. The 
Cardinal Infante Ferdinand, fresh from his crushing victory over 
the Swedes at Nordlingen, came as governor to Brussels in 1634, 
at the head of considerable Spanish forces, and an active renewal 
of the war in 1635 was clearly imminent. 

In these circumstances Frederick Henry determined to enter into 
negotiations with France for the conclusion of an offensive and 
defensive alliance against Spain, the common enemy. He had many 
difficulties to encounter. The Estates of Holland, though opposed 
to the terms actually offered by the Brussels government, were also 
averse to taking any step which shut the door upon hopes of peace. 
Richelieu on his side, though ready, as before, to grant subsidies and 
to permit the enrolment of French regiments for the Dutch service, 
shrank from committing France to an open espousal of the Protestant 
side against the Catholic powers. The stadholder, however, was 
not deterred by the obstacles in his way ; and the diplomatic skill 
and adroitness of Aerssens, aided by his own tact and firmness of 
will, overcame the scruples of Richelieu. The opposition of the 
Estates of Holland, without whose consent no treaty could be 
ratified, was likewise surmounted. Adrian Pauw, their leader, was 
despatched on a special embassy to Paris, and in his absence his 
influence was undermined, and Jacob Cats was appointed Council- 
Pensionary in his stead. In the spring of 1635 a firm alliance was 
concluded between France and the United Provinces, by which it 
was agreed that neither power should make peace without the 
consent of the other, each meanwhile maintaining a field force of 
25,000 foot and 5000 horse and dividing conquests in the Southern 
Netherlands between them. This treaty was made with the con- 
currence and strong approval of the Swedish Chancellor, Oxenstierna, 
and was probably decisive in its effect upon the final issue of the 
Thirty Years' War. 



TO THE PEACE OF MUENSTER 149 

In the early spring of 1635, therefore, a French force entered the 
Netherlands and, after defeating Prince Thomas of Savoy at Namur, 
joined the Dutch army at Maestricht. Louis XIII had given 
instructions to the French commanders, Chatillon and de Breze, 
to place themselves under the orders of the Prince of Orange ; and 
Frederick Henry at the head of 32,000 foot and 9000 horse now 
entered the enemy's territory and advanced to the neighbourhood 
of Louvain. Here however, owing to the outbreak of disease among 
his troops, to lack of supplies and to differences of opinion with his 
French colleagues, the prince determined to retreat. His action was 
attended by serious results. His adversary, the Cardinal Infante 
Ferdinand, was a wary and skilful general. He now seized his 
opportunity, rapidly made himself master of Diest, Gennep, 
Goch and Limburg, and took by surprise the important fort of 
Schenck at the junction of the Waal and the Rhine. Vexed at the 
loss of a stronghold which guarded two of the main waterways of 
the land, the stadholder at once laid siege to Schenck. But the 
Spanish garrison held out obstinately all through the winter and 
did not surrender until April 26, 1636. The Dutch army had suffered 
much from exposure and sickness during this long investment and 
was compelled to abstain for some months from active operations. 
Ferdinand thereupon, as soon as he saw that there was no immediate 
danger of an attack from the north, resolved to avenge himself upon 
the French for the part they had taken in the preceding year's cam- 
paign. Reinforced by a body of Imperialist troops under Piccolomini 
he entered France and laid the country waste almost to the gates 
of Paris. This bold stroke completely frustrated any plans that the 
allies may have formed for combined action in the late summer. 

The following year the States determined, somewhat against the 
wishes of Frederick Henry, to send an expedition into Flanders for 
the capture of Dunkirk. This was done at the instance of the French 
ambassador, Charnace, acting on the instructions of Richelieu, who 
promised the assistance of 5000 French troops and undertook, 
should the town be taken, to leave it in the possession of the Dutch. 
The stadholder accordingly assembled (May 7) an army of 14,000 
foot and a considerable body of horse at Rammekens, where a fleet 
lay ready for their transport to Flanders. Contrary winds, however, 
continued steadily to blow for many weeks without affording any 
opportunity for putting to sea. At last, wearied out with the long 



150 END OF THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 

inaction and its attendant sickness the prince (July 20) suddenly 
broke up his camp and marched upon Breda. Spinola, after capturing 
Breda in 1625, had greatly strengthened its defences ; and now, with 
a garrison of 4000 men under a resolute commander, it was held to 
be secure against any attack. The siege was a repetition of those of 
Hertogenbosch and Maestricht. In vain did the Cardinal Infante 
with a powerful force try to break through the lines of circumvalla- 
tion, which the prince had constructed with his usual skill. Called 
away by a French invasion on the south, he had to leave Breda to 
its fate. The town surrendered on October 10. 

During the years 1637 and 1638 the ever-recurring dissensions 
between the province of Holland and the Generality became acute 
once more. The Provincial Estates insisted on their sovereign rights 
and refused to acknowledge the authority of the States-General to 
impose taxes upon them. This opposition of Holland was a great 
hindrance to the prince in the conduct of the war, and caused him 
constant anxiety and worry. It was impossible to plan or to carry 
out a campaign without adequate provision being made for the 
payment and maintenance of the military and naval forces, and 
this depended upon Holland's contribution. Amsterdam was the 
chief offender. On one occasion a deputation sent to Amsterdam 
from the States-General was simply flouted. The burgomaster 
refused to summon the council together, and the members of the 
deputation had to return without an audience. All the prince's 
eflforts to induce the contumacious city to consider his proposals 
in a reasonable and patriotic spirit were of no avail; they were 
rejected insultingly. In his indignation Frederick Henry is reported 
to have exclaimed, "I have no greater enemy, but if only I could 
take Antwerp, it would bring them to their senses." 

The immense and growing prosperity of Amsterdam at this time 
was indeed mainly due to the fall of Antwerp from its high estate. 
To reconquer Antwerp had indeed long been a favourite project 
of Frederick Henry. In 1638 he made careful and ample prepara- 
tions for its realisation. But it was not to be. Misfortune this year 
was to dog his steps. The advance was made in two bodies. The 
larger under the prince was to march straight to Antwerp. The 
second, of 6000 men, commanded by Count William of Nassau, was 
instructed to seize some outlying defences on the Scheldt before 
joining the main force before the town. Count William began well, 



TO THE PEACE OF MUENSTER 151 

but, hearing a false rumour that a fleet was sailing up the Scheldt 
to intercept his communications, he hastily retreated. While his 
ranks were in disorder he was surprised by a Spanish attack, and 
practically his entire force was cut to pieces. On hearing of this 
disaster the stadholder had no alternative but to abandon the siege. 

Constant campaigning and exposure to the hardships of camp life 
year after year began at this time seriously to affect the health of 
the stadholder. He was much troubled by attacks of gout, which 
frequently prevented him from taking his place in the field. In 1639 
there were no military events of importance ; nevertheless this year 
was a memorable one in the annals of the Dutch republic. 

It was the year of the battle of the Downs. A great eflFort was 
made by Spain to re-establish her naval supremacy in the narrow 
seas, and the finest fleet that had left the harbours of the peninsula 
since 1588 arrived in the Channel in September, 1639. It consisted: 
of seventy-seven vessels carrying 24,000 men, sailors and soldiers, 
and was under the command of an experienced and capable seaman, 
Admiral Oquendo. His orders were to drive the Dutch fleet from 
the Channel and to land 10,000 men at Dunkirk as a reinforcement 
for the Cardinal Infante. Admiral Tromp had been cruising up and 
down the Channel for some weeks on the look-out for the Spaniards, 
and on September 16 he sighted the armada. He had only thirteen 
vessels with him, the larger part of his fleet having been detached 
to keep watch and ward over Dunkirk. With a boldness, however, 
that might have been accounted temerity, Tromp at once attacked 
the enemy and with such fury that the Spanish flee* sought refuge ;, 
under the lee of the Downs and anchored at the side of an English 
squadron under Vice-Admiral Pennington. Rejoined by seventeen 
ships from before Dunkirk, the Dutch admiral now contented 
himself with a vigilant blockade, until further reinforcements could 
reach him. Such was the respect with which he had inspired 
the Spaniards, that no attempt was made to break the blockade; 
and in the meantime Tromp had sent urgent messages to Holland 
asking the Prince of Orange and the admiralties to strain every 
nerve to give him as many additional ships as possible. The request 
met with a ready and enthusiastic response. In all the dockyards 
work went on with relays of men night and day. In less than a 
month Tromp found himself at the head of 105 sail with twelve 
fire-ships. They were smaller ships than those of his adversar}% 



152 END OF THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 

but they were more than enough to ensure victory. On October 21, 

after detaching Vice- Admiral Witte de With with 30 ships to watch 

/ Pennington's squadron, Tromp bore down straight upon the 

/ Spanish fleet though they were lying in English waters. Rarely has 

/ there been a naval triumph more complete. Under cover of a fog 

Oquendo himself with seven vessels escaped to Dunkirk ; all the 

rest were sunk, burnt, or captured. It is said that 15,000 Spaniards 

perished. On the side of the Dutch only 100 men were killed and 

wounded. The Spanish power at sea had suffered a blow from which 

it never recovered. 

Charles I was very angry on learning that English ships had been 
obliged to watch the fleet of a friendly power destroyed in English 
waters before their eyes. The king had inherited from his father 
a long series of grievances against the Dutch ; and, had he not been 
involved in serious domestic difficulties, there would probably have 
been a declaration of war. But Charles' finances did not permit him 
to take a bold course, and he was also secretly irritated with the 
Spaniards for having sought the hospitality of English waters (as 
written evidence shows) without his knowledge and permission. 
Aerssens was sent to London to smooth over the matter. He had 
no easy task, but by skill and patience he contrived, in spite of many 
adverse influences at the court, so to allay the bitter feelings that 
had been aroused by "the scandal of the Downs" that Charles and 
his queen were willing, in the early months of 1640, to discuss 
i seriously the project of a marriage between the stadholder's only 
j son and one of the English princesses. In January a special envoy, 
Jan van der Kerkoven, lord of Heenvlict, joined Aerssens with a 
formal proposal for the hand of the princess royal; and after 
somewhat difficult negotiations the marriage was at length satis- 
;' factorily arranged. The ceremony took place in London, May 12, 
I 1 64 1. As William was but fifteen years of age and Mary, the 
princess royal, only nine, the bridegroom returned to Holland alone, 
leaving the child-bride for a time at Whitehall with her parents. 
The wedding took place at an ominous time. Ten days after it was 
celebrated Strafford was executed ; and the dark shadow of the Great 
Rebellion was already hanging over the ill-fated Charles. In the 
tragic story of the House of Stewart that fills the next two decades 
there is perhaps no more pathetic figure than that of Mary, the 
mother of William III. At the time this alliance gave added lustre 



TO THE PEACE OF MUENSTER 153 

to the position of the Prince of Orange, both at home and abroad, 
by uniting his family in close bonds of relationship with the royal 
houses both of England and France. 

In 1640, as the Spaniards remained on the defensive, the 
stadholder entered Flanders and by a forced march attempted to 
seize Bruges. His effort, however, was foiled, as was a later attempt 
to capture Hulst, when Frederick Henr}^ and the States sustained 
a great loss in the death of the gallant Henry Casimir of Nassau, 
who was killed in a chance skirmish at the age of 29 years. This 
regrettable event caused a vacancy in the stadholderates of Friesland 
and Groningen \\dth Drente. A number of zealous adherents of the 
House of Orange were now anxious that Frederick Hemy^ should 
fill the vacant posts to the exclusion of his cousin, William Frederick, 
younger brother of Henr}' Casimir. They urged upon the prince, 
who was himself unwilling to supplant his relative, that it was for 
the good of the State that there should be a unification of authorit}^ 
in his person ; and at last he expressed himself ready to accept the 
offices, if elected. The result of the somewhat mean intrigues that 
followed, in which Frederick Henr}^ himself took no part, gave a 
curious illustration of the extreme jealousy of the provinces towards 
anything that they regarded as outside intrusion into their affairs. 
The States- General ventured to recommend the Estates of Friesland 
to appoint the Prince of Orange ; the recommendation was resented, 
and William Frederick became stadholder. The Frieslanders on 
their part sent a deputation to Groningen in favour of William 
Frederick, and Groningen-D rente elected the Prince of Orange. 
This dispute caused an estrangement for a time between the two 
branches of the House of Nassau, which was afterwards healed by ^ 
the marriage of the Friesland stadholder ^^dth Albertine Agnes, a ; 
daughter of Frederick Henr}\ From this union the present royal- 
famih^ of Holland trace their descent. 

The miUtary operations of the years 1641, 1642 and 1643 were 
dilator}- and featureless. Both sides were sick of the war and were 
content to remain on the defensive. This was no doubt largely due 
to the fact that in rapid succession death removed from the stage 
many of those who had long played leading parts in the political 
history of the times. Aerssens died shortly after his return from his 
successful mission to England in the autumn of 1641 ; and almost 
at the same time the Cardinal Infante Ferdinand, who during his 



154 END OF THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 

tenure of the governor-generalship had shown great capacity and 
prudence both as a statesman and as a commander, expired. In 
1 642, after eighteen years of almost autocratic rule, Richelieu passed 
away, his death (December 4, 1642) coming almost half-way 
between those of his enemy, the intriguing Marie de' Medici 
(July 3,1642), and that of her son, Louis XIII (May 18, 1643). Anne 
of Austria, the sister of the King of Spain, became regent in France ; 
but this did not imply any change of policy with regard to the United 
Provinces, for Cardinal Mazarin, who, through his influence over 
the regent succeeded to the power of Richelieu, was a pupil in 
the school of that great statesman and followed in his steps. 
Moreover, during this same period the outbreak of civil war in 
England had for the time being caused that country to be wholly 
absorbed in its own domestic concerns, and it ceased to have any 
weight in the councils of western Europe. Thus it came to pass that 
there was a kind of lull in the external affairs of the United Provinces ; 
and her statesmen were compelled to take fresh stock of their 
position in the changed situation that had been created. 

Not that this meant that these years were a time of less pressure 
and anxiety to the Prince of Orange. His new relations with the 
English royal family were a source of difficulty to him. Henrietta 
Maria (March, 1642) came to Holland, bringing with her the 
princess royal, and for a whole year took up her residence at the 
Hague. She was received with kindliness and courtesy not only 
by the stadholder and his family, but by the people of Holland 
generally. Her presence, together with that of the Queen of Bohemia, 
at the Princess of Orange's court gave to it quite a regal dignity 
and splendour, which was particularly gratifying to Amalia von 
Solms. But the English queen had other objects in view than those 
of courtesy. She hoped not merely to enlist the sympathies of 
Frederick Henry for the royal cause in the English civil war, but 
to obtain through his help supplies of arms and munitions from 
Holland for King Charles. But in this she did not succeed. The 
Parliament had sent an envoy, William Strickland, to counteract 
the influence of Henrietta Maria, and to represent to the States- 
General that it was fighting in defence of the same principles which 
had led to the revolt against Spain. The prince was far too prudent 
to allow his personal inclinations to override his political judgment 
as a practical statesman. He knew that public opinion in the United 



TO THE PEACE OF MUENSTER 155 

Provinces would never sanction in any form active support of 
King Charles against his parliament, and he did not attempt it. 
Intervention was confined to the despatch of an embassy to England 
with instructions to mediate between the two parties. When the 
unfortunate queen found that all her efforts on behalf of King 
Charles were in vain, she determined to leave the safe refuge where 
she had been so hospitably entertained and to return to her 
husband's side. She sailed from Scheveningen on March 9, 1643, 
and reached the royal camp at York in safety. 

In the autumn of this year, 1643, two special envoys were sent 
by Cardinal Mazarin to the Hague ; and one of the results of their 
visit was a renewal of the treaty of 1635 by which France and the 
United Provinces had entered upon an offensive and defensive 
alliance and had agreed to conclude no peace but by mutual consent. 
Nevertheless Frederick Henry, whom long experience had made 
wary and far-sighted, had been growing for some little time 
suspicious of the advantage to the republic of furthering French 
aggrandisement in the southern Netherlands. He saw that France 
was a waxing, Spain a waning power, and he had no desire to see 
France in possession of territory bordering on the United Provinces. 
This feeling on his part was possibly the cause of the somewhat 
dilatory character of his military operations in 1641 and 1642. The 
revolt of Portugal from Spain in December, 1640, had at first been 
welcomed by the Dutch, but not for long. The great and successful 
operations of the East and West India Companies had been chiefly 
carried on at the expense of the Portuguese, not of the Spaniards. 
The great obstacle to peace with Spain had been the concession of 
the right to trade in the Indies. It was Portugal, rather than Spain, 
which now stood in the way of the Dutch merchants obtaining that 
right, for the Spanish government, in its eagerness to stamp out a 
rebellion which had spread from the Peninsula to all the Portuguese 
colonies, was quite ready to sacrifice these to secure Dutch neutrality 
in Europe. The dazzling victory of the French under the young 
Duke of Enghien over a veteran Spanish army at Rocroi(May, 1643) 
also had its effect upon the mind of the prince. With prophetic 
foresight, he rightly dreaded a France too decisively victorious. In 
the negotiations for a general peace between all the contending 
powers in the Thirty Years' War, which dragged on their slow 
length from 1643 to 1648, the stadholder became more and more 



156 END OF THE TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE 

convinced that it was in the interest of the Dutch to maintain Spain 
as a counterpoise to the growing power of France, and to secure 
the favourable terms, which, in her extremity, Spain would be ready 
to offer. 

At first, however, there was no breach in the close relations with 
France; and Frederick Henry, though hampered by ill-health, 
showed in his last campaigns all his old skill in siege-craft. By the 
successive captures of Hertogenbosch, Maestricht and Breda he had 
secured the frontiers of the republic in the south and south-east. 
He now turned to the north-west corner of Flanders. In 1644 he 
took the strongly fortified post of Sas-van-Gent, situated on the 
Ley, the canalised river connecting Ghent with the Scheldt. In 
1 645 he laid siege to and captured the town of Hulst, and thus gained 
complete possession of the strip of territory south of the Scheldt, 
known as the Land of Waes, which had been protected by these 
two strongholds, and which has since been called Dutch Flanders. 

Very shortly after the capitulation of Hulst the ambassadors 
plenipotentiary of the United Provinces set out (November, 1645) 
to take their places at the Congress of Miinster on equal terms with 
the representatives of the Emperor and of the Kings of France and 
Spain. The position acquired by the Dutch republic among the 
powers of Europe was thus officially recognised de facto even before 
its independence had been de jure ratified by treaty. The parley- 
ings at Miinster made slow headway, as so many thorny questions 
had to be settled. Meanwhile, with the full approval of the prince, 
negotiations were being secretly carried on between Madrid and 
the Hague with the view of arriving at a separate understanding, 
in spite of the explicit terms of the treaty of 1635. ^^ soon as the 
French became aware of what was going on, they naturally protested 
and did their utmost to raise every difficulty to prevent a treaty 
being concluded behind their backs. The old questions which had 
proved such serious obstacles in the negotiations of 1607-9 were 
still sufficiently formidable. But the situation was very different in 
1646-7. The Spanish monarchy was actually in extremis. Portugal 
and Catalonia were in revolt; a French army had crossed the 
Pyrenees; the treasury was exhausted. Peace with the Dutch 
Republic was a necessity; and, as has been already said, the vexed 
question about the Indies had resolved itself rather into a Portuguese 
than a Spanish question. By a recognition of the Dutch conquests 



TO THE PEACE OF MUENSTER 157 

in Brazil and in the Indian Ocean they were acquiring an allv 
without losing anything that they had not lost already by the 
Portugxiese declaration of independence. But, as the basis of an 
a^eement was on the point of being reached, an event happened 
which caused a delay in the proceedings. 

The Prince of Orange, who had been long a mart^T to the gout, 
became in the autumn of 1646 hopelessly ill. He Hngered on in 
continual suffering for some months and died on IMarch 14, 1647. 
Shortly before his death he had the satisfaction of \^itnessing the 
marriage of his daughter Louise Henrietta to Frederick WilUam 
of Brandenburg, afterwards kno\s-n as the Great Elector. He was 
not, however, destined to see peace actually concluded, though he 
ardently desired to do so. Frederick Hemy could, however, at any 
rate feel that his life-work had been thoroughly and successfully 
accomplished. The senices he rendered to his countn.- during his 
stadholderate of twent\'-r«'0 years can scarcely be over-estimated. 
It is a period of extraordinary- prosperit}- and distinction, which well 
desen-es the title given to it by Dutch historians — "the golden age 
of Frederick Henr\-." The body of the stadholder was laid, amidst 
universal lamentation and %%ith almost regal pomp, besides those of 
his father and brother in the Xieuwe Kerk at Delft. 

The removal of a personaHt}- of such authorit}^ and influence at 
this critical tim^e was a dire misfortune, for there were many cross- 
currents of policy in the different provinces and of divergence of 
interests bet^veen the seafaring and merchant classes and other 
sections of the population. Finally the skill and perseverance of the 
two leading Dutch plenipotentiaries, Pauw and Van Knu}t, and of 
the Spanish envoys, Pefiaranda and Brun, brought the negotiations 
to a successful issue. The assent of all the provinces was necessary, 
and for a time Utrecht and Zeeland were obstinatelv refractory, but 
at length their opposition was overcome; and on Januar}- 30, 1648, 
the treat}' of IMiinster was duly signed. Great rejoicings throughout 
the land celebrated the end of the War of Independence, which, 
had lasted for eight\-years. Thus, in spite of the solemn engagement' 
made with France, a separate peace was concluded with Spain and 
in the interests of the United Pro\-inces. Their course of action was 
beyond doubt politically wise and defensible, but, as might be 
expected, it left behind it a feeKng of soreness, for the French 
naturally regarded it as a breach of faith. The treat}* of Miinster 



158 THE PEACE OF MUENSTER 

consisted of 79 articles, the most important of which were: the 
King of Spain recognised the United Provinces as free and inde- 
pendent lands; the States-General kept all their conquests in 
Brabant, Limburg and Flanders, the so-called Generality lands; 
also their conquests in Brazil and the East Indies made at the 
expense of Portugal ; freedom of trading both in the East and West 
Indies was conceded ; the Scheldt was declared closed, thus shutting 
out Antwerp from access to the sea ; to the House of Orange all its 
confiscated property was restored ; and lastly a treaty of trade and 
navigation with Spain was negotiated. On all points the Dutch 
obtained all and more than all they could have hoped for. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES. 
COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION 

An account of the foundation, constitution and early efforts of the 
Dutch East India Company has been already given. The date of 
its charter (March 20, 1602) was later than that of its English rival 
(Dec. 3 1 , 1600), but in realit}^ the Dutch were the first in the field, 
as there were several small companies in existence and competing 
with one another in the decade previous to the granting of the 
charter, which without extinguishing these companies incorporated 
them by the name of chambers under a common management, the 
Council of Seventeen. The four chambers however — ^Amsterdam, 
Zeeland, the Maas (Rotterdam and Delft) and the North Quarter 
(Enkhuizen and Hoom) — ^though separately administered and with 
different spheres, became gradually more and more unified by the 
growing power of control exercised by the Seventeen. This was 
partly due to the dominating position of the single Chamber of 
Amsterdam, which held half the shares and appointed eight 
members of the council. The erection of such a company, with its 
monopoly of trade and its great privileges including the right of 
maintaining fleets and armed forces, of concluding treaties and of 
erecting forts, was nothing less than the creation of an imperium in 
imperio ; and it may be said to have furnished the model on which 
all the great chartered companies of later times have been formed. 
The English East India Company was, by the side of its Dutch 
contemporary, almost insignificant; with its invested capital of 
£30,000 it was in no position to struggle successfully against a 
competitor which started wdth subscribed funds amounting to 
£540,000. 

The conquest of Portugal by Spain had spelt ruin to that un- 
happy country and to its widespread colonial empire and extensive 
commerce. Before 1581 Lisbon had been a great centre of the Dutch 
carrying-trade; and many Netherlanders had taken service in 
Portuguese vessels and were familiar with the routes both to the 



i6o EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES 

East Indies and to Brazil. It was the closing of the port of Lisbon 
to Dutch vessels that led the enterprising merchants of Amsterdam 
and Middelburg to look further afield. In the early years of the 
seventeenth century a large number of expeditions left the Dutch 
harbours for the Indian Ocean and made great profits ; and very 
large dividends were paid to the shareholders of the company. 
How far these represented the actual gain it is difficult to discover, 
for the accounts were kept in different sets of ledgers; and it is 
strongly suspected that the size of the dividends may, at times 
when enhanced credit was necessary for the raising of loans, have 
been to some extent fictitious. For the enterprise, which began as 
a trading concern, speedily developed into the creation of an 
empire overseas, and this meant an immense expenditure. 

The Malay Archipelago was the chief scene of early activity, and 
mere especially the Moluccas. Treaties were made with the native 
chiefs ; and factories defended by forts were established at Tidor, 
Ternate, Amboina, Banda and other places. The victories of 
Cornelis Matelief established that supremacy of the Dutch arms in 
these eastern waters which they were to maintain for many years. 
With the conclusion of the truce the necessity of placing the 
general control of so many scattered forts and trading posts in the 
hands of one supreme official led, in 1609, to the appointment of a 
governor-general by the Seventeen with the assent of the States- 
General. The governor- general held office for five years, and he 
was assisted by a council, the first member of which, under the title 
of director-general, was in reality minister of commerce. Under 
him were at first seven (afterwards eight) local governors. These 
functionaries, though exercising considerable powers in their 
respective districts, were in all matters of high policy entirely 
subordinate to the governor-general. The first holders of the 
office were all men who had risen to that position by proving 
themselves to possess energy and enterprise, and being compelled 
by the distance from home to act promptly on their own initiative, 
were practically endowed with autocratic authority. In consequence 
of this the Dutch empire in the East became in their hands rapidly 
extended and consolidated, to the exclusion of all competitors. This 
meant not only that the Portuguese and Spaniards were ousted from 
their formerly dominant position in the Orient, but that a collision 
with the English was inevitable. 



COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION i6i 

The first governor-general, Pieter Both, had made Java the 
centre of administration and had established factories and posts at 
Bantam, Jacatra and Djapara, not without arousing considerable 
hostility among the local rulers, jealous of the presence of the 
intruders. This hostility was fostered and encouraged by the 
English, whose vessels had also visited Java and had erected a 
trading- post close to that of the Dutch at Jacatra. Already the spice 
islands had been the scene of hostile encounters between the 
representatives of the two nations, and had led to many altercations. 
This was the state of things when Jan Pieterzoon Koen became 
governor-general in 1615. This determined man, whose ex- 
perience in the East Indies was of long date, and who had already 
served as director-general, came into his new office with an intense 
prejudice against the English, and with a firm resolve to put an end 
to what he described as their treachery and intrigues. "Were they 
masters," he wrote home, "the Dutch would quickly be out of the 
Indies, but praise be to the Lord, who has provided otherwise. 
They are an unendurable nation." With this object he strongly 
fortified the factory near Jacatra, thereby arousing the hostility of 
the P anger an y as the native ruler was styled. The English in their 
neighbouring post also began to erect defences and to encourage 
the Pangeran in his hostile attitude. Koen thereupon fell upon the 
English and destroyed and burnt their factory, and finding that 
there was a strong English fleet under Sir Thomas Dale in the 
neighbourhood, he sailed to the Moluccas in search of reinforce- 
ments, leaving Pieter van der Broeck in command at the factory. 
The Pangeran now feigned friendship^ and having enticed Broeck 
to a conference, made him prisoner and attacked the Dutch strong- 
hold. The garrison however held out until the governor-general 
returned with a strong force. With this he stormed and destroyed 
the town of Jacatra and on its site erected a new town, as the seat 
of the company's government, to which the name Batavia was 
given. From this time the Dutch had no rivalry to fear in Java. The 
conquest of the whole island was only a question of time, and the 
"pearl of the Malay Archipelago" has from 1620 to the present 
been the richest and most valuable of all the Dutch colonial 
possessions. Koen was planning to follow up his success by driving 
the English likewise from the Moluccas, when he heard that the 
home government had concluded a treaty which tied his hands. 

E. H. H, II 



1 62 EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES 

The position in the Moluccas had for some years been one of 
continual bickering and strife; the chief scene being in the little 
group known as the Banda islands. The lucrative spice-trade 
tempted both companies to establish themselves by building forts ; 
and the names of Amboina and Pulo Rum were for many years to 
embitter the relations of the two peoples. Meanwhile the whole 
subject of those relations had been in 1619 discussed at London by 
a special embassy sent nominally to thank King James for the part 
he had taken in bringing the Synod of Dort to a successful termina- 
tion of its labours, but in reality to settle several threatening trade 
disputes. Almost the only result of the prolonged conferences was 
an agreement (June 2, 16 19) by which the East India Companies 
were for twenty years to be virtually amalgamated. The English 
were to have half the pepper crop in Java and one-third of the spices 
in the Moluccas, Amboina and the Banda islands. Forts and posts 
were to remain in their present hands, but there was to be a joint 
council for defence, four members from each' company, the president 
to be appointed alternately month by month. Such a scheme was 
a paper scheme, devised by those who had no personal acquaintance 
with the actual situation. There was no similarity between a great 
military and naval organisation like the Dutch Company and a body 
of traders like the English, whose capital was small, and who were 
entirely dependent on the political vagaries of an impecunious 
sovereign, whose dearest wish at the time was to cultivate close 
relations with the very power in defiance of whose prohibition the 
East India Company's trade was carried on. The agreement received 
indeed a fresh sanction at another conference held in London (1622- 
23), but it never was a working arrangement. The bitter ill-feeling 
that had arisen between the Dutch and English traders was not to 
be allayed by the diplomatic subterfuge of crying peace when there 
was no peace. Events were speedily to prove that this was so. 

The trade in spices had proved the most lucrative of all, and 
measures had been taken to prevent any undue lowering of the 
price by a glut in the market. The quantity of spices grown was 
carefully regulated, suitable spots being selected, and the trees 
elsewhere destroyed. Thus cloves were specially cultivated at 
Amboina; nutmegs in the Banda islands. Into this strictly guarded 
monopoly, from which the English had been expelled by the energy 
of Koen, they were now by the new treaty to be admitted to a share. 



COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION 163 

It was only with difficulty that the Dutch were induced to acquiesce 
sullenly in the presence of the intruders. A fatal collision took place 
almost immediately after the convention between the Companies, 
about the trade in the spice islands, had been renewed in London, 
1622-3. 

In 1623 Koen was succeeded, as governor-general, by Pieter 
Carpentier, whose name is still perpetuated by the Gulf of Car- 
pentaria on the north of Australia. At this time of transition the 
Governor of Amboina, Van Speult, professed to have discovered a 
conspiracy of the English settlers, headed by Gabriel Towerson, to 
make themselves masters of the Dutch fort. Eighteen Englishmen 
were seized, and though there was no evidence against them, except 
what was extorted by torture and afterwards solemnly denied, 
twelve, including Towerson, were executed. Carpentier admitted 
that the proceedings were irregular, and they were in any case 
unnecessary, for a despatch recalling Towerson was on its way to 
Amboina. It was a barbarous and cruel act ; and when the news of 
the "massacre of Amboina," as it was called, reached England, 
there was loud indignation and demands for redress. But the quarrel 
with Spain over the marriage of the Prince of Wales had driven 
James I at the very end of his life, and Charles I on his accession, to 
seek the support of the United Provinces. By the treaty of South- 
ampton, September 17, 1625, an offensive and defensive alliance 
was concluded with the States- General ; and Charles contented 
himself with a demand that the States should within eighteen, 
months bring to justice those who were responsible "for the bloody 
butchery on our subjects." However, Carleton again pressed for the 
punishment of the perpetrators of "the foule and bloody act" of 
Amboina. The Dutch replied with evasive promises, which they 
never attempted to carry out; and Charles' disastrous war with 
France and his breach with his parliament effectually prevented 
him from taking steps to exact reparation. But Amboina was not 
forgotten ; the sore rankled and was one of the causes that moved 
Cromwell to war in 1654. 

The activity of the Dutch in eastern waters was, however, by no 
means confined to Java, their seat of government, or to the Moluccas 
and Banda islands with their precious spices. Many trading posts 
were erected on the large islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Trading 
relations were opened with Siam from 1613 onwards. In 1623 a 



II- 



1 64 EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES 

force under Willem Bontekoe was sent by Koen to Formosa. The 
island was conquered and a governor appointed with his residence 
at Fort Zelandia. Already under the first governor- general, Pieter 
Both, permission was obtained from the Shogun for the Dutch, 
under close restrictions, to trade with Japan, a permission which 
was still continued, after the expulsion of the Portuguese and the 
bloody persecution of the Christian converts (1637-42), though 
under somewhat humiliating conditions. But, with the Dutch, trade 
was trade, and under the able conduct of Francis Caron it became 
of thriving proportions. During the next century no other Europeans 
had any access to the Japanese market except the agents of the 
Dutch East India Company. 

Among the governors-general of this early period the name of 
Antony van Diemen (1636-45) deserves special recognition. If 
Koen laid the firm foundations of Dutch rule in the East, Van 
Diemen built wisely and ably on the work of Koen. Carpentier's 
rule had been noteworthy for several voyages of discovery along the 
coasts of New Guinea and of the adjoining shore of Australia, but 
the spirit of exploration reached its height in the days of Van 
Diemen. The north and north-west of Australia being to some 
extent already known, Abel Tasman was despatched by Van Diemen 
to find out, if possible, how far southward the land extended. 
Sailing in October, 1642, from Mauritius, he skirted portions of the 
coast of what is now Victoria and New South Wales and dis- 
covered the island which he named after his patron Van Diemen's 
land, but which is now very appropriately known as Tasmania. 
Pressing on he reached New Zealand, which still bears the name that 
he gave to it, and sailed through the strait between the northern 
and southern islands, now Cook's strait. In the course of this great 
voyage he next discovered the Friendly or Tonga islands and the Fiji 
archipelago. He reached Batavia in June, 1643 , and in the following 
year he visited again the north of Australia and voyaged right round 
the Gulf of Carpentaria. Even in a modern map of Australia Dutch 
names will be found scattered round certain portions of the 
coast of the island-continent, recording still, historically, the names 
of the early Dutch explorers, their patrons, ships and homes. Along 
the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria may be seen Van Diemen 
river, gulf and cape ; Abel Tasman, Van Alphen, Nassau and Staten 
rivers ; capes Arnhem, Caron and Maria (after Francis Caron and 



COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION 165 

Maria van Diemen) and Groote Eylandt. In Tasmania, with many 
other names, may be found Frederick Henry bay and cape,Tasman's 
peninsula and Tasman's head and Maria island ; while the wife of 
the governor-general is again commemorated, the northernmost 
point of New Zealand bearing the name of Maria van Diemen cape. 

To Van Diemen belongs the credit of giving to the Dutch their 
first footing (1638) in the rich island of Ceylon, by concluding a 
treaty with the native prince of Kandy. The Portuguese still 
possessed forts at Colombo, Galle, Negumbo and other places, but 
Galle and Negumbo were now taken by the Dutch, and gradually 
the whole island passed into their hands and became for a century 
and a half their richest possession in the East, next to Java. On the 
Coromandel coast posts were also early established, and trade 
relations opened up with the Persians and Arabs. At the time when 
the Treaty of Miinster gave to the United Provinces the legal title 
to that independence for which they had so long fought, and con- 
ceded to them the freedom to trade in the Indies, that trade was 
already theirs, safe-guarded by the fleets, the forts and the armed 
forces of the chartered company. The governor-general at 
Batavia had become a powerful potentate in the Eastern seas ; and 
a succession of bold and able men, by a policy at once prudent and 
aggressive, had in the course of a few decades organised a colonial 
empire. It was a remarkable achievement for so small a country 
as the United Provinces, and it was destined to have a prolonged life. 
The voyage round by the cape was long and hazardous, so Van 
Diemen in 1638 caused the island of Mauritius to be occupied as 
a refitting station ; and in 1652 one of his successors (Reinierz) sent 
a body of colonists under Jan van Riebeck to form a settlement, 
which should be a harbour of refuge beneath the Table mountain 
at the Cape itself. This was the beginning of the Cape colony. 

Quite as interesting, and even more exciting, was the history of 
Dutch enterprise in other seas during this eventful period. The 
granting of the East India Company's charter led a certain Willem 
Usselincx to come forward as an earnest and persistent advocate 
for the formation of a West India Company on the same lines. But 
Oldenbarneveldt, anxious to negotiate a peace or truce with Spain 
and to maintain good relations with that power, refused to lend any 
countenance to his proposals, either before or after the truce was 
concluded. He could not, however, restrain the spirit of enterprise 



i66 EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES 

that with increasing prosperity was abroad in Holland. The for- 
mation of the Northern or Greenland Company in 1613, specially 
created in order to contest the claims of the English Muscovy 
Company to exclusive rights in the whale fishery off Spitsbergen, 
led to those violent disputes between the fishermen of the two 
countries, of which an account has been given. The granting of a 
charter to the Company of New Netherland (1614) was a fresh 
departure. The voyage of Henry Hudson in the Dutch service 
when, in 1 610, he explored the coast of North America and sailed 
up the river called by his name, led certain Amsterdam and Hoorn 
merchants to plan a settlement near this river; and they secured 
a charter giving them exclusive rights from Chesapeake bay to 
Newfoundland. The result was the founding of the colony of New 
Netherland, with New Amsterdam on Manhattan island as its 
capital. This settlement was atfirst small and insignificant, but, being 
placed midway between the English colonies on that same coast, 
it added one more to the many questions of dispute between the 
two sea-powers. 

Willem Usselincx had all this time continued his agitation for the 
erection of a West India Company ; and at last, with the renewal of 
the war with Spain in 1 621, his efforts were rewarded. The charter 
granted by the States- General (June 3, 1621) gave to the company 
for twenty-four years the monopoly of navigation and trade to the 
coast-lands of America and the West Indies from the south-end of 
Newfoundland to the Straits of Magellan and to the coasts and lands 
of Africa from the tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope. The 
governing body consisted of nineteen representatives, the Nineteen. 
The States-General contributed to the capital 1,000,000 fl., on half 
of which only they were to receive dividends. They also undertook 
in time of war to furnish sixteen ships and four yachts, the company 
being bound to supply a like number. The West India Company 
from the first was intended to be an instrument of war. Its aims 
were buccaneering rather than commerce. There was no secret 
about its object ; it was openly proclaimed. Its historian De Laet 
(himself a director) wrote, ''There is no surer means of bringing 
our Enemy at last to reason, than to infest him with attacks every- 
where in America and to stop the fountain-head of his best 
finances." After some tentative efforts, it was resolved to send out 
an expedition in great force; but the question arose, where best to 



COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION 167 

strike ? By the advice of Usselincx and others acquainted with the 
condition of the defences of the towns upon the American coast, 
Bahia, the capital of the Portuguese colony of Brazil, was selected, 
as specially vulnerable. Thus in the West, as in the East, Portugal 
was to suffer for her unwilling subjection to the crown of 
Castile. 

The consent of the States-General and of the stadholder being 
obtained, some months were spent in making preparations on an 
adequate scale. The fleet, which consisted of twenty- three ships of 
war with four yachts, armed with 500 pieces of ordnance, and 
carrying in addition to the crews a force of 1700 troops, sailed in two 
contingents, December, 1623, ^^^ January, 1624. Jacob Willekens 
was the admiral-in-chief, with Piet Hein as his vice-admiral. 
Colonel Jan van Dbrth, lord of Horst, was to conduct the land 
operations and to be the governor of the town, when its conquest 
was achieved. On May 9 the fleet sailed into the Bay of All Saints 
{Bahia de todos os Santos) and proceeded to disembark the troops 
on a sandy beach a little to the east of the city of San Salvador, 
commonly known as Bahia. It was strongly situated on heights 
rising sheer from the water ; and, as news of the Dutch preparations 
had reached Lisbon and Madrid, its fortifications had been repaired 
and its garrison strengthened. In front of the lower town below the 
cliffs was a rockv island, and on this and on the shore were forts 
well provided with batteries, and under their lee were fifteen ships 
of war. On May 10 Piet Hein was sent with five vessels to contain 
the enemy's fleet and cover the landing of the military forces. But 
Hein, far from being content with a passive role, attacked the 
Portuguese, burnt or captured all their ships and then, embarking 
his men in launches, stormed the defences of the island and spiked 
the guns. Meanwhile the troops had, without opposition, occupied 
a Benedictine convent on the heights opposite the town. But the 
daring of Piet Hein had caused a panic to seize the garrison. Despite 
the efforts of the governor, Diogo de Mendo9a Fur dado, there was 
a general exodus in the night, both of the soldiery and the inhabi- 
tants. When morning came the Dutch marched into the undefended 
town, the governor and his son, who had refused to desert their 
posts, being taken prisoners. They, with much booty, were at once 
sent to Holland as a proof of the completeness of the victory. 
Events, however, were to prove that it is easier for an expeditionary 



1 68 EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES 

force to capture a town at such a distance from the home-base of 
supplies, than to retain it. 

Governor Van Dorth had scarcely entered upon his duties when 
he fell into an ambush of native levies near San Salvador and was 
killed. His successor, Willem Schouten, was incompetent and 
dissolute ; and, when the fleet set sail on its homeward voyage at the 
end of July, the garrison soon found itself practically besieged by 
bodies of Portuguese troops with Indian auxiliaries, who occupied 
the neighbouring woods and stopped supplies. Meanwhile the news 
of the capture of San Salvador reached Madrid and Lisbon ; and 
Spaniards and Portuguese vied with one another in their eagerness 
to equip a great expedition to expel the invaders. It was truly a 
mighty armada which set sail, under the supreme command of Don 
Fadrique de Toledo, from the Iberian ports at the beginning of 
1625, f^^ ^t consisted of fifty ships with five caravels and four 
pinnaces, carrying 12,566 men and 1185 guns. On Easter Eve 
(March 29) the fleet entered All Saints' Bay in the form of a vast 
crescent measuring six leagues from tip to tip. The Dutch garrison 
of 2300 men, being strongly fortified, resisted for a month but, shut 
in by sea and by land and badly led, they capitulated on April 28, 
on condition that they were sent back to Holland. 

That the brilliant success of 1624 was thus so soon turned into 
disaster was in no way due to the supineness of the home authorities. 
The Nineteen were in no way surprised to hear of great prepara- 
tions being made by the King of Spain to retake the town, and they 
on their part were determined to maintain their conquest by meeting 
force with force. Straining all their resources, three squadrons were 
equipped ; the first two, numbering thirty- two ships and nine yachts, 
were destined for Brazil ; the third, a small flying squadron of seven 
vessels, was despatched early to watch the Spanish ports. The 
general-in-chief of the Brazilian expedition was Boudewyn 
Hendrikszoon. Driven back by a succession of storms, it was not 
until April 17, 1625, that the fleet was able to leave the Channel 
and put out to sea. The voyage was a rapid one and on May 23, 
Hendrikszoon sailed into the bay in battle order, only to see the 
Spanish flag waving over San Salvador and the mighty fleet of 
Admiral Toledo drawn up under the protection of its batteries. 
Hendrikszoon sailed slowly past the Spaniards, who did not stir, 
and perceiving that it would be madness to attack a superior force 



COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION 169 

in such a position he reluctantly gave orders to withdraw. On the 
homeward journey by the West Indies a number of rich prizes were 
made, but sickness made great ravages among the crews, and 
counted Hendrikszoon himself among its victims. 

The events of the following year seem to show that with audacity 
he might have at least inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. For in 
1626 the directors, ignorant of his failure, sent out a reinforcement 
of nine ships and five yachts under the command of the redoubtable 
Piet Hein. Hein sailed on May 21 for the West Indies, where he 
learnt that Hendrikszoon was dead and that the remnant of his 
expedition had returned after a fruitless voyage of misadventure. 
Hein however was not the man to turn back. He determined to try 
what he could effect at Bahia by a surprise attack. He reached the 
entrance to the bay on March i , 1627, but was unluckily becalmed ; 
and the Portuguese were warned of his presence. On arriving before 
San Salvador he found thirty ships drawn up close to the land; 
sixteen of these were large and armed, and four were galleons with 
a considerable number of troops on board. The Dutch admiral 
with great daring determined to attack them by sailing between 
them and the shore, making it difficult for the guns on shore to fire 
on him without injury to their own ships. Itwas a hazardous stroke, 
for the passage was narrow, but entirely successful. One of the 
four galleons, carrying the admiral's flag, was sunk, the other three 
struck. Taking to their launches, the Dutchmen now fiercely assailed 
the other vessels, and in a very short time were masters of twenty- 
two prizes. It was a difficult task to carry them off at the ebb-tide, 
and it was not achieved without loss. Hein's own ship, the Amster- 
dam^ grounded and had to be burnt, and another ship by some mis- 
chance blew up. The total loss, except through the explosion, was 
exceedingly small. The captured vessels contained 2700 chests of 
sugar, besides a quantity of cotton, hides and tobacco. The booty 
was stored in the four largest ships and sent to Holland ; the rest 
were burnt. 

Hein now made a raid down the coast as far as Rio de Janeiro 
and then returned. The "Sea Terror of Delft*' for some weeks 
after this remained in unchallenged mastery of the bay, picking up 
prizes when the opportunity offered. Then he sailed by the West 
Indies homewards and reached Dutch waters on October 31, 1627, 
having during this expedition captured no less than fifty-five enemy 



lyo EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES 

vessels. The value of the booty was sufficient to repay the company 
for their great outlay, and it was wisely used in the equipment of 
fresh fleets for the following year. 

This next year, 1628, was indeed an annus mirahilis in the records 
of the Dutch West India Company. On January 24 two fleets put 
to sea, one under Dirk Simonsz Uitgeest for the coast of Brazil ; 
another under Pieter Adriansz Ita for the West Indies. Both were 
successful and came back laden with spoil. It was reserved, how- 
ever, for the expedition under Piet Hein to make all other successes 
seem small. This fleet, consisting of thirty- one ships of war, left 
Holland at the end of May for the West Indies with instructions 
to lie in wait for the Spanish Treasure Fleet. Many attempts had 
been made in previous years to intercept the galleons, which year 
by year carried the riches of Mexico and Peru to Spain, but they 
had always failed. After some weeks of weary cruising, Piet Hein, 
when off the coast of Cuba, was rewarded (September 8) by the 
sight of the Spanish fleet approaching, and at once bore down upon 
them. After a sharp conflict, the Spaniards took refuge in the bay 
of Matanzas and, running the galleons into shoal- water, tried to 
convey the rich cargoes on shore. It was in vain. The Dutch sailors, 
taking to their boats, boarded the galleons and compelled them to 
surrender. The spoil was of enormous value, comprising 177,537 
lbs. of silver, 135 lbs. of gold, 37,375 hides, 2270 chests of indigo, 
besides cochineal, logwood, sugar, spices and precious stones. It 
brought 11,509,524 fl. into the coffers of the company, and a 
dividend of 50 per cent, was paid to the shareholders. It was a 
wrong policy thus to deal with the results of a stroke of good fortune 
not likely to be repeated. This year was, however, to be a lucky year 
unto the end. A fourth expedition under Adrian Jansz Pater which 
left on August 15 for the Caribbean sea, sailed up the Orinoco and 
destroyed the town of San Thome de Guiana, the chief Spanish 
settlement in those parts. All this, it may be said, partook of the 
character of buccaneering, nevertheless these were shrewd blows 
struck at the very source from whence the Spanish power obtained 
means for carrying on the war. The West India Company was 
fulfilling triumphantly one of the chief purposes for which it was 
created, and was threatening Philip IV with financial ruin. 

The successes of 1628 had the effect of encouraging the directors 
to try to retrieve the failure at Bahia by conquest elsewhere. 



COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION 171 

Olinda, on the coast of Pernambuco, was selected as the new 
objective. An expeditionary force of exceptional strength was got 
ready ; and, as Piet Hein,at the very height of his fame, unfortunately 
lost his life in the spring of 1629 in an encounter with the Dunkirk 
pirates, Hendrik Cornelisz Lonck, who had served as vice-admiral 
under Hein at Matanzas bay, was made admiral-in-chief, with 
Jonckheer Diederik van Waerdenburgh in command of the military 
forces. A considerable delay was caused by the critical position of 
the United Provinces when invaded by the Spanish-Imperialist 
armies at the time of the siege of Hertogenbosch, but the capture 
of that fortress enabled the last contingents to sail towards the end 
of the year; and Lonck was able to collect his whole force at 
St Vincent, one of the Canary islands, on Christmas Day to start 
on their voyage across the Atlantic. That force consisted of fifty- 
two ships and yachts and thirteen sloops, carrying 3780 sailors and 
3500 soldiers 5 and mounting 1 170 guns. Adverse weather prevented 
the arrival of the fleet in the offing of Olinda until February 13. 
Along the coast of Pernambuco runs a continuous reef of rock with 
narrow openings at irregular intervals, forming a barrier against 
attack from the sea. Olinda, the capital of the provinces, was built 
on a hill a short distance inland, having as its port a village known 
as Povo or the Reciff, lying on a spit of sand between the mouths 
of the rivers Biberibi and Capibaribi. There was a passage through 
the rocky reef northwards about two leagues above Olinda and 
three others southwards (only one of which, the B array was 
navigable for large ships) giving access to a sheet of water of some 
18 ft. in depth between the reef and the spit of sand, and forming 
a commodious harbour, the Pozo. 

The problem before the Dutch commander was a difficult one, 
for news of the expedition had reached Madrid ; and Matthias de 
Albuquerque, brother of " the proprietor" of Pernambuco, Duarte 
de Albuquerque, a man of great energy and powers of leadership, 
had arrived in October to put Olinda and the Reciff into a state bf 
defence. Two forts strongly garrisoned and armed, San Francisco 
and San Jorge, defended the entrances through the reef and the 
neck of the spit of sand ; sixteen ships chained together and filled 
with combustibles barred access to the harbour ; and the village of 
the Reciff was surrounded by entrenchments. Within the fortifica- 
tions of Olinda, Albuquerque held himself in readiness to oppose 



172 EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES 

any body of the enemy that should effect a landing above the town. 
Lonck, after consultation with Waerdenburgh, determined to make 
with the main body of the fleet under his own command an attempt 
to force the entrances to the Pozo, while Waerdenburgh, with the 
bulk of the military contingent on sixteen ships, sailed northwards 
to find some spot suitable for disembarkation. 

The naval attack was made on February 15, but was unavailing. 
All the efforts of the Dutch to make their way through any of the 
entrances to the Pozo, though renewed again and again with the 
utmost bravery, were beaten off. In the evening Lonck withdrew his 
ships. He had learnt by an experience, to which history scarcely 
offers an exception, that a naval attack unsupported by military 
co-operation against land defences cannot succeed. But Waerden- 
burgh had used the opportunity, while the enemy's attention was 
directed to the repelling of the assault on the Reciff, to land his 
army without opposition. At dawn the Dutch general advanced and, 
after forcing the crossing of the river Doce in the teeth of the 
resistance of a body of irregular troops led by Albuquerque in 
person, marched straight onOlinda. There was no serious resistance. 
The fortifications were carried by storm and the town fell into the 
hands of Waerdenburgh. The garrison and almost all the inhabi- 
tants fled into the neighbouring forest. 

Aware of the fact that the occupation of Olinda was useless without 
a harbour as a base of supplies, it was resolved at once with the aid 
of the fleet to lay siege to the forts of San Francisco and San Jorge. 
Despite obstinate resistance, first San Jorge, then San Francisco 
surrendered ; and on March 3 the fleet sailed through the Barra, and 
the Reciff with the island of Antonio Vaz behind it was occupied 
by the Dutch. No sooner was the conquest made than steps were 
taken for its administration. A welcome reinforcement arrived from 
Holland on March 1 1 , having on board three representatives sent by 
the Nineteen, who were to form with Waerdenburgh, appointed 
governor, an administrative council, or Court of Policy. The Reciff, 
rather than Olinda, was selected as the- seat of government, and 
forts were erected for its defence. The position, however, was 
perilous in the extreme. Albuquerque, who was well acquainted 
with the country and skilled in guerrilla warfare, formed an entrench- 
ed camp to which he gave the name of the Arreyal de Bom Jesus, 
2i position defended by marshes and thick woods. From this centre, 



COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION 173 

by the aid of large numbers of friendly Indians, he was able to cut 
off all supplies of fresh water, meat or vegetables from reaching the 
Dutch garrison. They had to depend for the necessaries of life upon 
stores sent to them in relief fleets from Holland. It was a strange 
and grim struggle of endurance, in which both Dutch and Portu- 
guese suffered terribly, the one on the barren sea-shore, the other 
in the pathless woods under the glare of a tropical sun, both alike 
looking eagerly for succour from the Motherland. The Dutch 
succours were the first to arrive. The first detachment under 
Marten Thijssen reached the Reciff on December 18, 1630 ; the main 
fleet under Adrian Jansz Pater on April 14, 1631. The whole fleet 
consisted of sixteen ships and yachts manned by 1270 sailors and 
860 soldiers. Their arrival was the signal for offensive operations. 
An expedition under Thijssen's command sailed on April 22 for the 
large island of Itamaraca about fifteen miles to the north of the 
Reciff. It was successful. Itamaraca was occupied and garrisoned, 
and thus a second and advantageous post established on the 
Brazilian coast. 

Meanwhile the Spanish government had not been idle. After 
many delays a powerful fleet set sail from Lisbon on May 5 for 
Pernambuco, consisting of fifteen Spanish and five Portuguese 
ships and carrying a large military force, partly destined for Bahia, 
but principally as a reinforcement for Matthias de Albuquerque. 
The expedition was commanded by Admiral Antonio de Oquendo, 
and was accompanied by Duarte de Albuquerque, the proprietor 
of Pernambuco. After landing troops and munitions at Bahia, the 
Spaniards wasted several weeks before starting again to accomplish 
the main object of blockading the Dutch in the Reciff and compelling 
their surrender by famine. But Pater had learnt by his scouts of the 
presence of Oquendo at Bahia, and though his force was far inferior 
he determined to meet the hostile armada at sea. The Spanish fleet 
was sighted at early dawn on September 12, and Pater at once gave 
orders to attack. His fleet consisted of sixteen ships and yachts, 
that of the enemy of twenty galleons and sixteen caravels. The Dutch 
admiral had formed his fleet in two lines, himself in the Prins 
Willem and Vice-Admiral Thijssen in the Vereenigte Provintien 
being the leaders. On this occasion the sight of the great numbers 
and size of the Spanish galleons caused a great part of the Dutch 
captains to lose heart and hang back. Pater and Thijssen, followed 



174 EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES 

by only two ships, bore down however on the Spaniards. The Prins 
Willem with the Walcheren in attendance laid herself alongside the 
St Jago, flying the flag of Admiral Oquendo; the Vereenigte 
Provintien with the Provifitie van Utrecht in its wake drew up to the 
St Antonio de Padua ^ the ship of Vice- Admiral Francisco de 
Vallecilla. For six hours the duel between the Prins Willem and the 
Stjago went on with fierce desperation, the captain of the Walcheren 
gallantly holding at bay the galleons who attempted to come to the 
rescue of Oquendo. At 4 p.m. the Stjago was a floating wreck with 
only a remnant of her crew surviving, when suddenly a fire broke 
out in the Prins Willem ^ which nothing could check. With difficulty 
the St Jago drew off and, finding that his vessel was lost. Pater, 
refusing to surrender, wrapped the flag round his body and threw 
himself into the sea. Meanwhile success had attended Thijssen. The 
lagging Dutch ships coming up gradually threatened the convoy of 
Spanish transports and drew off many of the galleons for their 
protection. The Provintie van Utrecht indeed, like the Prins Willem, 
caught fire and was burnt to the water's edge ; but the vice-admiral 
himself sank the St Antonio de Padua and another galleon that came 
to Vallecilla's help, and captured a third. It was a bloody and 
apparently indecisive fight, but the Dutch enjoyed the fruits of 
victory. Oquendo made no attempt to capture the Reciff and 
Olinda, but, after landing the troops he convoyed at a favourable 
spot, sailed northwards, followed by Thijssen. 

But though relieved the position was still very serious. Albu- 
querque, now considerably reinforced from his impregnable post 
at the Arreyal de Bom Jesus, cut off all intercourse inland. The 
Dutch even abandoned Olinda and concentrated themselves at the 
Reciff, where they remained as a besieged force entirely dependent 
upon supplies sent from Holland. Several expeditions were des- 
patched with the hope of seizing other positions on the coast, but 
all of them proved failures ; and, when Waerdenburgh returned home 
in 1633, having reached the end of his three years' service as 
governor, all that could be said was that the Dutch had retained 
their foothold on the coast of Pernambuco, but at vast cost to the 
company in men, vessels and treasure, and without any apparent 
prospect for the future. But pertinacity was to be rewarded. For the 
period of success that followed special histories must be consulted. 
In the year following the return of Waerdenburgh the efforts of 



COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION 175 

the Dutch authorities to extend their possessions along the coast 
at the various river mouths were steadily successful ; and with the 
advent of Joan Maurice of Nassau to the governorship, in 1637, the 
dream of a Dutch empire in Brazil seemed to be on the point of 
realisation. This cousin of the Prince of Orange was endowed with 
brilliant qualities, and during the seven years of his governorship 
he extended the Dutch dominion from the Rio Grande in the south 
to the island of Maranhao on the north and to a considerable 
distance inland, indeed over the larger part of seven out of the 
fourteen captaincies into which Portuguese Brazil was divided. On 
his arrival, by a wise policy of statesmanlike conciliation, he con- 
trived to secure the goodwill of the Portuguese planters, who, 
though not loving the Dutch heretics, hated them less than their 
Spanish oppressors, and also of the Jews, who were numerous in 
the conquered territory. Under his rule the Reciff as the seat of 
the Dutch government was beautified and enlarged ; many fine 
buildings and gardens adorned it, and the harbour made com- 
modious for commerce with rows of warehouses and ample docks. 
To the new capital he gave the name of Mauri tsstad. 

During the earlier part of his governor-generalship Joan Maurice 
was called upon to face a really great danger. The year 1639 was to 
witness what was to be the last great effort (before the Portuguese 
revolt) of the still undivided Spanish monarchy for supremacy at 
sea. Already it has been told how a great fleet sent under Antonio 
de Oquendo to drive the Dutch from the narrow seas was crushed 
by Admiral Tromp at the battle of the Downs. In the same year 
the most formidable armada ever sent from the Peninsula across 
the ocean set sail for Brazil. It consisted of no less than eighty-six 
vessels manned by 12,000 sailors and soldiers under the command 
of the Count de Torre. Unpropitious weather conditions, as so 
often in the case of Spanish naval undertakings, ruined the enter- 
prise. Making for Bahia they were detained for two months in the 
Bay of All Saints by strong northerly winds. Meanwhile Joan 
Maurice, whose naval force at first was deplorably weak, had 
managed by energetic efforts to gather together a respectable fleet 
of forty vessels under Admiral Loos, which resembled the English 
fleet of 1588 under Effingham and Drake, in that it made up for 
lack of numbers and of size by superior seamanship and skill in 
manoeuvring. At length, the wind having shifted, the Count de 



176 EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES 

Torre put to sea; and on January 12, 1640, the Dutch squadrons 
sighted the Spaniards, who were being driven along by a southerly 
gale which had sprung up. Clinging to their rear and keeping the 
weather-gauge, the Dutch kept up a running fight, inflicting 
continual losses on their enemies, and, giving them no opportunity 
to make for land and seek the shelter of a port, drove them 
northwards in disorder never to return. By this signal deliverance 
the hold of the Netherlanders upon their Brazilian conquests 
appeared to be assured; and, as has been already stated, Joan 
Maurice took full advantage of the opportunity that was offered to 
him to consolidate and extend them. A sudden change of political 
circumstances was, however, to bring to a rapid downfall a 
dominion which had never rested on a sound basis. 

The revolt of Portugal in 1641 was at first hailed in the United 
Provinces as the entry of a new ally into the field against their 
ancient enemy the Spaniard. But it was soon perceived that there 
could be no friendship with independent Portugal, unless both the 
East and West India Companies withdrew from the territories they 
had occupied overseas entirely at the expense of the Portuguese. 
King Joao IV and his advisers at Lisbon, face to face as they were 
with the menacing Spanish power, showed willingness to make 
great concessions, but they could not control the spirit which 
animated the settlers in the colonies themselves. Everywhere the 
Spanish yoke was repudiated, and the Dutch garrisons in Brazil 
suddenly found themselves confronted in 1645 with a loyalist rising, 
with which they were not in a position to deal successfully. The 
West India Company had not proved a commercial success. The 
fitting out of great fleets and the maintenance of numerous garrisons 
of mercenaries at an immense distance from the home country had 
exhausted their resources and involved the company in debt. The 
building of Mauritsstad and the carrying out of Joan Maurice's 
ambitious schemes for the administration and organisation of a 
great Brazilian dominion were grandiose, but very costly. The 
governor, moreover, who could brook neither incompetence nor 
interference on the part of his subordinates, had aroused the enmity 
of some of them, notably of a certain Colonel Architofsky, who 
through spite plotted and intrigued against him with the authorities 
at home. The result was that, the directors having declined to 
sanction certain proposals made to them by Joan Maurice, he sent 



COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION 177 

in his resignation , which was accepted ( 1 644) . It must be remembered 
that their position was a difficult one. The charter of the company- 
had been granted for a term of twenty-four years, and it was 
doubtful whether the States- General, already beginning to discuss 
secretly the question of a separate peace with Spain, would consent 
to renew it. The relations with Portugal were very delicate ; and a 
formidable rebellion of the entire body of Portuguese settlers, aided 
by the natives, was on the point of breaking out. Indeed the 
successors of Joan Maurice, deprived of any adequate succour 
from home, were unable to maintain themselves against the skill 
and courage of the insurgent Portuguese leaders. The Dutch were 
defeated in the field, and one by one their fortresses were taken. 
The Reciff itself held out for some time, but it was surrendered at 
last in 1654 ; and with its fall the Dutch were finally expelled from 
the territory for the acquisition of which they had sacrificed so much 
blood and treasure. 

The West India Company at the peace of Mlinster possessed, 
besides the remnant of its Brazilian dominion, the colony of New 
Nether land in North America, and two struggling settlements on 
the rivers Essequibo and Berbice in Guiana. New Netherland 
comprised the country between the English colonies of New 
England and Virginia; and the Dutch settlers had at this time 
established farms near the coast and friendly relations with the 
natives of the interior, with whom they trafficked for furs. The 
appointment of Peter Stuyvesant as governor, in 1646, was a time 
of real development in New Netherland. This colony was an 
appanage of the Chamber of Amsterdam, after which New 
Amsterdam, the seat of government on the island of Manhattan, 
was named. The official trading posts on the Essequibo and the 
Berbice, though never abandoned, had for some years a mere 
lingering existence, but are deserving of mention in that they were 
destined to survive the vicissitudes of fortune and to become in the 
1 8th century a valuable possession. Their importance also is to be 
measured not by the meagre official reports and profit and loss 
accounts that have survived in the West India Company's records, 
but by the much fuller information to be derived from Spanish 
and Portuguese sources, as to the remarkable daring and energy 
of Dutch trading agents in all that portion of the South American 
continent lying between the rivers Amazon and Orinoco. Expelled 

E. H. H. 12 



178 EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES 

from the Amazon itself in 1627 ^Y the Portuguese from Para, the 
Dutch traders established themselves at different times at the 
mouths of almost all the rivers along what was known as the Wild 
Coast of Guiana, and penetrating inland through a good under- 
standing with the natives, especially with the ubiquitous Carib 
tribes, carried on a barter traffic beyond the mountains into the 
northern watershed of the Amazon, even as far as the Rio Negro 
itself. This trade with the interior finds no place in the company's 
official minutes, for it was strictly speaking an infringement of the 
charter, and therefore illegitimate. But it was characteristically 
Dutch, and it was winked at, for the chief offenders were themselves 
among the principal shareholders of the company. 

No account of Dutch commerce during the period of Frederick 
Henry would be complete, however, which did not refer to the 
relations between Holland and Sweden, and the part played by an 
Amsterdam merchant in enabling the Swedish armies to secure the 
ultimate triumph of the Protestant cause in the Thirty Years' War. 
Louis de Geer sprang from an ancient noble family of Liege. His 
father fled to Dordrecht in 1595 to escape from the Inquisition and 
became prosperous in business. Liege was then, as now, a great 
centre of the iron industry ; and after his father's death Louis de 
Geer in 161 5 removed to Amsterdam, where he became a merchant 
in all kinds of iron and copper goods, more especially of ordnance 
and fire-arms. In close alliance with him, though not in partnership, 
was his brother-in-law, Elias Trip, the head of a firm reputed to 
have the most extensive business in iron-ware and weapons in the 
Netherlands. The commanding abilities of de Geer soon gave to 
the two firms , which continued to work harmoniously together as a 
family concern, a complete supremacy in the class of wares in which 
they dealt. At this time the chief supply of iron and copper ore 
came from Sweden ; and in 1616 de Geer was sent on a mission by 
the States-General to that country to negotiate for a supply of these 
raw materials for the forging of ordnance. This mission had 
important results, for it was the first step towards bringing about 
those close relations between Sweden and the United Provinces 
which were to subsist throughout the whole of the Thirty Years' 
War. In the following year, 1617, Gustavus Adolphus, then about 
to conduct an expedition into Livonia, sent an envoy to Holland 
for the purpose of securing the good offices of the States- General 



COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION 179 

for the raising of a loan upon the security of the Swedish copper 
mines. The principal contributor was Louis de Geer. He had, 
during his visit to Sweden, learnt how great was the wealth of that 
country in iron ore, and at the same time that the mines were lying 
idle and undeveloped through lack of capital and skilled workmen. 
He used his opportunity therefore to obtain from Gustavus the 
lease of the rich mining domain of Finspong. The lease was signed 
on October 12, 16 19, and de Geer at once began operations on the 
largest scale. He introduced from Liege a body of expert Walloon 
iron- workers, built forges and factories, and was in a few years able 
to supply the Swedish government with all the ordnance and 
munitions of war that they required, and to export through the port 
of Norrkoping large supplies of goods to his warehouses at Amster- 
dam. His relations with Gustavus Adolphus soon became intimate. 
The king relied upon de Geer for the supply of all the necessaries 
for his armies in the field, and even commissioned him to raise 
troops for the Swedish service. In 1626 the Dutch merchant was 
appointed by the king acting-manager of the copper mines, which 
were royal property ; and, in order to regularise his position and give 
him greater facilities for the conduct of his enterprises, the rights of 
Swedish citizenship were conferred by royal patent upon him. It 
was a curious position, for though de Geer paid many visits to 
Sweden, once for three consecutive years, 1626-29, he continued 
to make Amsterdam his home and principal residence. He thus had 
a dual nationality. Year after year saw an increasing number of 
mines and properties passing into the great financier's hands, and 
in return for these concessions he made large advances to the king 
for his triumphant expedition into Germany ; advancing him in 1628 
50,000 rixdalers, and somewhat later a further sum of 32,000 
rixdalers. So confidential were the relations between them that 
Gustavus sent for de Geer to his camp at Kitzingen for a personal 
consultation on business matters in the spring of 1632. It was their 
last interview, for before that year closed the Swedish hero was to 
perish at Liitzen. 

The death of Gustavus made no difference to the position of 
Louis de Geer in Sweden, for he found Axel Oxenstierna a warm 
friend and powerful supporter. Among other fresh enterprises was 
the formation of a Swedo-Dutch Company for trading on the West 
Coast of Africa. In this company Oxenstierna himself invested 



12- 



i8o EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES 

money. In reward for his many services the Swedish Council of 
Regency conferred upon de Geer and his heirs a patent of nobility 
(August 4, 164 1 ) ; and as part repayment of the large loans advanced 
by him to the Swedish treasury he obtained as his own the districts 
containing his mines and factories in different parts of Sweden, 
making him one of the largest landed proprietors in the country. 
He on his part in return for this was able to show in a remarkable 
way that he was not ungrateful for the favours that he had received. 
With Christian IV of Denmark for many years the Swedes and 
the Dutch had had constant disputes and much friction. This able 
and ambitious king, throughout a long and vigorous reign, which 
began in 1593, had watched with ever-increasing jealousy the 
passing of the Baltic trade into Dutch hands, and with something 
more than jealousy the rapid advance to power of the sister 
Scandinavian kingdom under Gustavus Adolphus. Of the 1074 
merchant ships that passed through the Sound between June 19 
and November 16, 1645, all but 49 came from Dutch ports, by far 
the largest number from Amsterdam ; and from these Christian IV 
drew a large revenue by the exaction of harsh and arbitrary toll- 
dues. Again and again the States-General had complained and 
protested ; and diplomatic pressure had been brought to bear upon 
the high-handed king, but without avail. Between Sweden and 
Denmark there had been, since Gustavus Adolphus came to the 
throne in 161 3, no overt act of hostility ; but smouldering beneath 
the surface of an armed truce were embers of latent rivalries and 
ambitions ready at any moment to burst into flame. Christian IV 
was a Protestant, but his jealousy of Sweden led him in 1639 openly 
to take sides with the Catholic powers, Austria and Spain. Fearing 
that he might attempt to close the passage of the Sound, the States- 
General and the Swedish Regency in 1640 concluded a treaty 
" for securing the freedom and protection of shipping and commerce 
in the Baltic and North Seas " ; and one of the secret articles gave 
permission to Sweden to buy or hire ships in the Netherlands and 
in case of necessity to enlist crews for the same. Outward peace 
was precariously maintained between the Scandinavian powers, 
when the seizure of a number of Swedish ships in the Sound in 
1643 J^ade Oxenstierna resolve upon a bold stroke. Without any 
declaration of war the Swedish general, Torstensson, was ordered 
to lead his victorious army from North Germany into Denmark 



COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION i8i 

and to force King Christian to cease intriguing with the enemy. 
Holstein, Schleswig and Jutland were speedily in Torstensson's 
hands, but the Danish fleet was superior to the Swedish, and he 
could make no further progress. Both sides turned to the United 
Provinces. Christian promised that the grievances in regard to the 
Sound dues should be removed if the States- General would remain 
neutral. Oxenstierna addressed himself to Louis de Geer. The 
merchant on behalf of the Swedish government was instructed to 
approach the stadholder and the States-General, and to seek for 
naval assistance under the terms of the treaty of 1640 ; and, if he 
failed in obtaining their assent, then he — de Geer — should him- 
self (in conformance with the secret article of that treaty) raise 
on his own account and equip a fleet of thirty ships for the Swedish 
service. 

De Geer soon discovered that Frederick Henry, being intent on 
peace negotiations, was averse to the proposal. The stadholder, and 
the States- General acting under his influence, did not wish to create 
fresh entanglements by embroiling the United Provinces in a war 
with Denmark. De Geer therefore at once began on his own 
responsibility to equip ships in the various seaports of Holland and 
Zeeland which had been the chief sufferers by the vexatious Sound 
dues, and he succeeded in enlisting the connivance of the Estates 
of Holland to his undertaking. Before the end of April, 1644, a fleet 
of thirty-two vessels was collected under the command of Marten 
Thijssen. Its first efforts were unsuccessful. The Danish fleet 
effectually prevented the junction of Thijssen with the Swedes, and 
for a time he found himself blockaded in a narrow passage called 
the Listerdiep. Taking advantage of a storm which dispersed the 
Danes, the Dutch admiral at last was able to put to sea again, and 
early in July somewhat ignominiously returned to Amsterdam to 
refit. For the moment King Christian was everywhere triumphant. 
On July II he gained a signal victory over the Swedish fleet at 
Colberg Heath, and he had the satisfaction of seeing Torstensson 
compelled by the Imperialists to retreat from Jutland. But the 
energy and pertinacity of the Amsterdam merchant saved the 
situation. Though the retreat of Thijssen meant for him a heavy 
financial loss, de Geer never for a moment faltered in his purpose. 
Within three weeks Thijssen again put to sea with twenty-two 
ships, and by skilful manoeuvring he succeeded in making his way 



i82 EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES 

through the Skagerak and the Sound, and finally brought his fleet 
to anchor in the Swedish harbour of Calmar. From this harbour the 
united Swedo-Dutch squadrons sailed out and on October 23, 
between Femern and Laaland, met the Danish fleet, and after a 
desperate conflict completely defeated and destroyed it. Thus were 
the wealth and resources of a private citizen of Amsterdam able to 
intervene decisively at a critical moment in the struggle for supremacy 
in the Baltic between the two Scandinavian powers. But it is not 
in the victory won by Marten Thijssen that de Geer rendered his 
greatest service to Sweden. As th,e Swedish historian Fryxell truly 
says, *' all that was won by the statesmanship of Oxenstierna, by the 
sword of Baner, Torstensson and Wrangel, in a desolated Germany 
streaming with blood, has been already lost again; but the benefits 
which Louis de Geer brought to Sweden, by the path of peaceful 
industry and virtue, these still exist, and bear wholesome fruit to 
a late posterity." 

This expedition under Marten Thijssen, who after his victory 
was created a Swedish noble and definitely entered the Swedish 
naval service, though connived at by Frederick Henry and the 
States-General, did not express any desire on theirpart to aggrandise 
Sweden unduly at the expense of Denmark. If some great merchants 
such as Louis de Geer and Elias Trip were exploiting the resources 
of Sweden, others, notably a certain Gabriel Marcelis, had in- 
vested their capital in developing the Danish grazing lands; and 
politically and commercially the question of the Sound dues, pre- 
eminently a Danish question, overshadowed all others in importance. 
The Dutch had no desire to give Sweden a share in the control of 
the Sound ; they preferred in the interests of their vast Baltic trade 
to have to deal with Christian IV alone. The Swedish threat was 
useful in bringing diplomatic pressure to bear on the Danish king, 
but ultimately they felt confident that, if he refused to make con- 
cessions in the matter of the dues, they could compel him to do so. 
As one of their diplomatists proudly declared, "the wooden keys 
of the Sound were not in the hands of King Christian, but in the 
wharves of Amsterdam.*' In June, 1645, his words were put to a 
practical test. Admiral Witte de With at the head of a fleet of fifty 
war-ships was ordered to convoy 300 merchantmen through the 
Sound, peacefully if possible, if not, by force. Quietly the entire 
fleet of 350 vessels sailed through the narrow waters. The Danish 



COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION 183 

fleet and Danish forts made no attempt at resistance. All the 
summer De With cruised to and fro and the Dutch traders suffered 
no molestation. Christian's obstinacy at last gave wa5j3efore this dis- 
play of superior might, and on August 23 , by the treaty of Christian- 
opel he agreed to lower the tolls for forty years and to make many 
other concessions that were required from him. At the same time 
by Dutch mediation peace was concluded between Denmark and 
Sweden, distinctly to the advantage of the former, by the treaty of 
Bromsebro. 

To pass to other regions. In the Levant, during the long residence 
of Cornells Haga at Constantinople, trade had been greatly extended. 
Considerable privileges were conceded to the Dutch by the so- 
called "capitulation" concluded by his agency with the Porte in 
1612 ; and Dutch consuls were placed in the chief ports of Turkey, 
Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Tunis, Greece and Italy. The trading 
however with the Mediterranean and the Levant was left to private 
enterprise, the States- General which had given charters to the 
different Companies — ^East India, West India and Northern — not 
being willing to create any further monopolies. 

The lack of coal and of metals has always seriously hindered 
industrial development in the United Provinces. Nevertheless the 
advent into Holland of so many refugees who were skilled artisans, 
from the southern Netherlands, led to the establishment of various 
textile industries at Ley den, Haarlem and other towns. One of the 
chief of these was the dressing and dyeing of English cloth for 
exportation. 

Amsterdam, it should be mentioned, had already at this time 
become the home of the diamond industry. The art of cutting and 
polishing diamonds was a secret process brought to the city on the 
Y by Portuguese Jews, who were expelled by Philip II ; and in 
Amsterdam their descendants still retain a peculiar skill and 
craftmanship that is unrivalled. Jewish settlers were indeed to be 
found in many of the Dutch towns ; and it was through them that 
Holland became famous in 17th century Europe for the perfection 
of her goldsmiths' and silversmiths' art and for jewelry of every 
kind. Another industry, which had its centre at Delft, was that of 
the celebrated pottery and tiles known as "delfware." It will be 
evident from what has been said above that vast wealth flowed into 
Holland at this period of her history, but, as so often happens, this 



1 84 EAST AND WEST INDIA COMPANIES 

sudden growth of riches had a tendency to accumulate in the hands 
of a minority of the people, with the inevitable consequence, on 
the one hand, of the widening of the gulf which divided poverty 
from opulence ; on the other, with the creation among rich and poor 
alike of a consuming eagerness and passion for gain, if not by 
legitimate means, then by wild speculation or corrupt venality. 
Bubble companies came into existence, only to bring disaster on 
those who rashly invested their money in them. The fever of 
speculation rose to its height in the mania for the growing of bulbs 
and more especially of tulips, which more and more absorbed the 
attention of the public in Holland in the years 1633-6. Perfectly 
inordinate sums were offered in advance for growing crops or for 
particular bulbs; most of the transactions being purely paper 
speculations, a gambling in futures. Millions of guilders were 
risked, and hundreds of thousands lost or won. In 1637 the crash 
came, and many thousands of people, in Amsterdam, Haarlem, 
Leyden, Alkmaar and other towns in Holland, were brought to 
ruin. The Estates of Holland and the various municipal corpora- 
tions, numbers of whose members were among the sufferers, were 
compelled to take official action to extend the time for the liqui- 
dation of debts, and thus to some extent limit the number of 
bankruptcies. The tulip mania reduced, however, so many to beggary 
that it came as a stern warning. It was unfortunately only too typical 
of the spirit of the time. 

Even worse in some ways was the venality and corruption which 
began to pervade the public life of the country. The getting of 
wealth, no matter how, was an epidemic, which infected not merely 
the business community, but the official classes of the republic. 
There was malversation in the admiralties and in the military 
administration. The government was in the hands of narrow 
oligarchies, who took good care to oppose jealously any extension 
of the privileges which placed so much valuable patronage at their 
disposal. Even envoys to foreign courts were reputed not to be 
inaccessible to the receipt of presents, which were in reality bribes ; 
and in the law-courts the wealthy suitor or offender could generally 
count on a charitable construction being placed upon all points in 
his favour. The severe placards, for instance, against the public 
celebration of any form of worship but that of the Reformed 
religion, according to the decrees of the Synod of Dort, were 



COMiVIERCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION 185 

notoriously not enforced. Those who were able and willing to pay 
for a dispensation found a ready and judicious toleration. 

This toleration was not entirely due to the yenaHt\* of the officials, 
but rather to the spirit of materialistic indifference that was abroad 
among the orthodox Cahinists, who were alone eligible for public 
office. Large numbers of those who professed the established faith 
were in reality either nominal conformists too much immersed in 
affairs to trouble about religious questions, or actually free-thinkers 
in disguise. It must neyer be forgotten that in the United 
Proyinces taken as a whole, the Cal\"inists, whether orthodox or 
arminian, formed a minority of the population. Eyen in Holland 
itself more than half the inhabitants were Catholics, including 
many of the old families and almost all the peasantr}-. Likewise in 
Utrecht, Gelderland and Oyer}-ssel the Catholics were in the 
majoritv\ The GeneraHty lands, North Brabant and Dutch Flanders, 
were entirely of the Roman faith. In Holland, Zeeland and especi- 
ally in Friesland and Groningen the Mennonite Baptists and other 
sects had numerous adherents. Liberty of thought and to a large 
extent of worship was in fact at this time the characteristic of the 
Netherlands, and existed in spite of the unrepealed placards which 
enforced under pain of hea\T penalties a strict adherence to the 
principles of Dort. 



CHAPTER XII 

LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 

The epithet *' glorious" — roemrijke — has been frequently applied 
by Dutch historians to the period of Frederick Henry — and 
deservedly. The preceding chapter has told that it was a time of 
wonderful maritime and colonial expansion, of commercial 
supremacy and material prosperity. But the spirit of the Holland, 
which reached its culminating point of national greatness in the 
middle of the 17th century, was far from being wholly occupied 
with voyages of adventure and conquest on far distant seas, or 
engrossed in sordid commercialism at home. The rapid acquisition 
of wealth by successful trade is dangerous to the moral health and 
stability alike of individuals and of societies ; and the vices which 
follow in its train had, as we have already pointed out, infected to 
a certain extent the official and commercial classes in the Dutch 
republic at this epoch. There is, however, another side of the 
picture. The people of the United Provinces in their long struggle 
for existence, as a free and independent state, had had all the 
dormant energies and qualities of which their race was capable 
called into intense and many-sided activity, with the result that the 
quickening impulse, which had been sent thrilling through the 
veins, and which had made the pulses to throb with the stress of 
effort and the eagerness of hope, penetrated into every department 
of thought and life. When the treaty of Miinsterwas signed, Holland 
had taken her place in the very front rank in the civilised world, 
as the home of letters, science and art, and was undoubtedly the 
most learned state in Europe. 

In an age when Latin was the universal language of learning, 
it was this last fact which loomed largest in the eyes of con- 
temporaries. The wars and persecutions which followed the 
Reformation made Holland the place of refuge of many of the most 
adventurous spirits, the choicest intellects and the most independent 
thinkers of the time. Flemings and Walloons, who fled from Alva 
and the Inquisition, Spanish and Portuguese Jews driven out by 



LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 187 

the fanaticism of Philip II, French Huguenots and German 
Calvinists, found within the borders of the United Provinces a 
country of adoption, where freedom of the press and freedom of 
opinion existed to a degree unknown elsewhere until quite modern 
times. The social condition of the country, the disappearance of a 
feudal nobility, and the growth of a large and well-to-do burgher 
aristocracy in whose hands the government of the republic really 
lay, had led to a wide-spread diffusion of education and culture. 
All travellers in 17th century Holland were struck by the evidences 
which met their eyes, in all places that they visited, of a general 
prosperity combined with great simplicity of life and quiet do- 
mesticity. Homely comfort was to be seen everywhere, but not 
even in the mansions of the merchant princes of Amsterdam was 
there any ostentatious display of wealth and luxury. Probably of no 
other people could it have been said that "amongst the Dutch it 
was unfashionable not to be a man of business^." And yet, in spite 
of this, there was none of that narrowness of outlook, which is 
generally associated with burgher-society immersed in trade. These 
men, be it remembered, were necessarily acquainted with many 
languages, for they had commercial relations with all parts of the 
world. The number too of those who had actually voyaged and 
travelled in far distant oceans, in every variety of climate, amidst 
every diversity of race, was very large ; and their presence in their 
home circles and in social gatherings and all they had to tell of their 
experiences opened men's minds, stirred their imaginations, and 
aroused an interest and a curiosity, which made even the stay-at- 
home Hollanders alert, receptive and eager for knowledge. 

The act of William the Silent in founding the University of 
Leyden, as a memorial of the great deliverance of 1574, was 
prophetic of the future that was about to dawn upon the land, 
which, at the moment of its lowest fortunes, the successful defence 
of Leyden had done so much to save from utter disaster. For the 
reasons which have been already stated, scholars of renown driven 
by intolerance from their own countries found in the newly- 
founded Academy in Holland a home where they could pursue 
their literary work undisturbed, and gave to it a fame and celebrity 
which speedily attracted thousands of students not only from the 
Netherlands, but also from foreign lands. This was especially the 
^ Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, i, loi. 



i88 LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 

case during the terrible time when Germany was devastated by the 
Thirty Years' War. Among the scholars and philologists, who held 
chairs at Leyden during the first century of its existence, are 
included a long list of names of European renown. Justus Lipsius 
and Josephus Justus Scaliger may be justly reckoned among the 
founders of the science of critical scholarship. These were of foreign 
extraction, as was Salmasius, one of their successors, famous for his 
controversy with John Milton. But only less illustrious in the 
domain of philology and classical learning were the Netherlanders 
Gerardus Johannes Vossius (i 577-1 649) and his five sons, one of 
whom Isaac (1618-89) "^^Y ^^ Qy^n said to have surpassed his 
father; Daniel Heinsius (1580-1665) and his son Nicolas (1620- 
1681), men of immense erudition and critical insight; and the 
brilliant Latinist Caspar Barlaeus (i 584-1 648). Of theologians and 
their bitter disputes posterity retains a less grateful remembrance 
Gomarus and Arminius by their controversies were the authors of 
party strife and civil dissensions which led to the death of Olden- 
barneveldt on the scaffold; and with them may be mentioned 
Episcopius, Voetius, Coecaeus, Bogerman and Uyttenbogaert. Not 
all these men had a direct connection with Leyden, for the success 
which attended the creation of the academy in that town quickly 
led to the erection of similar institutions elsewhere. Universities 
were founded at Franeker, 1584; Groningen, 1614; Amsterdam, 
1632; Utrecht, 1636; and Harderwijk, 1646. These had not the 
same attraction as Leyden for foreigners, but they quickly became, 
one and all, centres for the diffusion of that high level of general 
culture which was the distinguishing mark of the 17th century 
Netherlands. 

All the writers, whose names have just been mentioned, used 
Latin almost exclusively as their instrument of expression. But one 
name, the most renowned of them all, has been omitted, because 
through political circumstances he was compelled to spend the 
greater part of his life in banishment from his native land. Hugo 
Grotius (Huig van Groot), after his escape from the castle of Loeve- 
stein in 1621, though he remained through life a true patriot, never 
could be induced to accept a pardon, which implied an admission of 
guilt in himself or in Oldenbarneveldt. So the man, who was known 
to have been the actual writer of the Advocate's Justification, con- 
tinued to live in straitened circumstances at Paris, until Oxenstierna 



LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 189 

appointed him Swedish ambassador at the French court. This post 
he held for eleven years. Of his extraordinary ability, and of the 
variety and range of his knowledge, it is not possible to speak 
without seeming exaggeration. Grotius was in his own time styled 
**the wonder of the world" ; he certainly stands intellectually as one 
of the very foremost men the Dutch race has produced. Scholar, 
jurist, theologian, philosopher, historian, poet, diplomatist, letter- 
writer, he excelled in almost every branch of knowledge and made 
himself a master of whatever subject he took in hand. For the 
student of International Law the treatise of Grotius, De Jure belli 
etpacis, still remains the text-book on which the later superstructure 
has been reared. His Mare liberum, written expressly to controvert 
the Portuguese claim of an exclusive right to trade and navigate in 
the Indian Ocean, excited much attention in Europe, and was taken 
by James I to be an attack on the oft-asserted dominium maris of 
the English crown in the narrow seas. It led the king to issue a 
proclamation forbidding foreigners to fish in British waters (May, 
1609). Selden's Mare clausum was a reply, written by the king's 
command, to the Mare liberum. Of his strictly historical works the 
Annales et Historiae de Rebus Belgicis Jor its impartiality and general 
accuracy no less than for its finished and lucid style, stands out as 
the best of all contemporary accounts from the Dutch side of the 
Revolt of the Netherlands. As a theologian Grotius occupied a high 
rank. His De Veritate Religionis Christianae and his Annotationes' 
in Vetus et in Novum Testamentum are now out of date ; but the De 
Veritate was in its day a most valuable piece of Christian apologetic 
and was quickly translated into many languages. The Annotationes 
have, ever since they were penned, been helpful to commentators 
on the Scriptures for their brilliancy and suggestiveness on many 
points of criticism and interpretation. His voluminous corres- 
pondence, diplomatic, literary, confidential, is rich in information 
bearing on the history and the life of his time. Several thousands of 
these letters have been collected and published. 

But if the smouldering embers of bitter sectarian and party strife 
compelled the most brilliant of Holland's own sons to spend the 
last twenty-three years of his life in a foreign capital and to enter 
the service of a foreign state, Holland was at the same time, as we 
have seen, gaining distinction by the presence within her hospitable 
boundaries of men of foreign extraction famous for their learning. 



I90 LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 

It was thus that both the Cartesian and Spinozan systems of 
philosophy had their birth-place on Dutch soil. Rene Descartes 
sought refuge from France at Amsterdam in 1629, and he resided 
at different places in the United Provinces, among them at the 
university towns of Utrecht, Franeker and Ley den, for twenty 
years. During this time he published most of his best known works, 
including the famous Discows de la methode. His influence was 
great. He made many disciples, who openly or secretly became 
"Cartesians." Among his pupils was Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) 
the apostle of pantheism. A Portuguese Jew by descent, Spinoza 
was born in Amsterdam and was a resident in his native city 
throughout life. 

The fame of Holland in 17th century Europe as the chosen home 
of learning had thus been established by scholars and thinkers 
whose literary language was ordinarily Latin. It is now time to 
speak of the brilliant band of poets, dramatists and stylists, who 
cultivated the resources of their native tongue with such success 
as to make this great era truly the Golden Age of Dutch Literature 
properly so-called. The growth of a genuine national literature in 
the Netherlands, which had produced during the latter part of the 
13th century a Maerlandt and a Melis Stoke, was for some con- 
siderable time checked and retarded by the influence of the 
Burgundian regime^ where French, as the court language, was 
generally adopted by the upper classes. The Nether land or Low- 
German tongue thus became gradually debased and corrupted by 
the introduction of bastard words and foreign modes of expression. 
Nevertheless this period of linguistic degradation witnessed the 
uprise of a most remarkable institution for popularising "the Art 
of Poesy." I refer to the literary gilds, bearing the name of 
*' Chambers of Rhetoric," which, though of French origin, became 
rapidly acclimatised in the Netherlands. In well-nigh every town 
one or more of these " gilds " were established, delighting the people 
with their quaint pageantry and elaborate ritual, and forming centres 
of Hght and culture throughout the land. Rhyming, versifying, 
acting, became through their means the recreation of many thousands 
of shop-keepers, artisans and even peasants. And with all their faults 
of style and taste, their endless effusion of bad poetry, their feeble 
plays and rude farces, the mummery and buffoonery which were 
mingled even with their gravest efforts, the *' Rhetoricians" 



LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 191 

effectually achieved the great and important work of attracting an 
entire people in an age of ignorance and of darkness towards a love 
of letters, and thereby broke the ground for the great revival of the 
17th century. 

Amsterdam at one time possessed several of these Chambers of 
Rhetoric, but towards the end of the i6th century they had all 
disappeared, with one brilliant exception, that of the *' Blossoming 
Eglantine," otherwise known as the "Old Chamber." Founded in 
1518 under the special patronage of Charles V, the "Eglantine" 
weathered safely the perils and troubles of the Revolt, and passed 
in 1 58 1 under the joint direction of a certain notable triumvirate, 
Coomheert, Spiegel and Visscher. These men banded themselves 
together "to raise, restore and enrich" their mother- tongue. But 
they were not merely Uterary purists and reformers ; the ' ' Eglantine " 
became in their hands and through their efforts the focus of new 
literary life and energy, and Amsterdam replaced fallen Antwerp 
as the home of Nether land culture. 

The senior member of the triumvirate. Dirk Volkertz Coom- 
heert, led a stormy and adventurous Hfe. He was a devoted adherent 
of William the Silent and for a series of years, through good and 
ill-fortune, devoted himself with pen and person to the cause of his 
patron. As a poet he did not attain any very high flight, but he was 
a great pamphleteer, and, taking an active part in religious con- 
troversy, by his publications he drew upon himself a storm of 
opposition and in the end of persecution. He was, like his patron, 
a man of moderate and tolerant views, which in an age of rehgious 
bigotry brought upon him the hatred of all parties and the accusa- 
tion of being a free-thinker. His stormy life ended in 1590. Hendrik 
Laurensz Spiegel (1549-16 12) was a member of an old Amsterdam 
family. In every way a contrast to Coornheert, Spiegel was a 
Catholic. A prosperous citizen, simple, unostentatious and charitable, 
he spent the whole of his life in his native town, and being dis- 
qualified by his religion from holding public office he gave all his 
leisure to the cultivation of his mind and to literary pursuits. The 
work on which his fame chiefly rests was a didactic poem entitled 
the Hert- Spiegel. In his pleasant country house upon the banks of 
the Amstel, beneath a wide and spreading tree, which he was wont 
to call the "Temple of the Muses" he loved to gather a circle of 
literary friends, irrespective of differences of opinion or of faith, 



192 LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 

and with them to spend the afternoon in bright congenial converse 
on books and men and things. Roemer Visscher, the youngest 
member of the triumvirate, was Hke Spiegel an Amsterdammer, a 
Catholic and a well-to-do merchant. His poetical efforts did not 
attain a high standard, though his epigrams, which were both 
witty and quaint, won for him from his contemporaries the name 
of the " Second Martial." Roemer Visscher 's fame does not, how- 
ever, rest chiefly upon his writings . A man of great affability, learned , 
shrewd and humorous, he was exceedingly hospitable, and he was 
fortunate in having a wife of like tastes and daughters more gifted 
than himself. During the twenty years which preceded his death 
in 1620 his home was the chosen rendezvous of the best intelligence 
of the day. To the young he was ever ready to give encouragement 
and help ; and struggling talent always found in him a kindly critic 
and a sympathising friend. He lived to see and to make the 
acquaintance of Brederoo, Vondel, Cats and Huyghens, the men 
whose names were to make the period of Frederick Henry the most 
illustrious in the annals of Dutch literature. 

Gerbrand Adriansz Brederoo, strictly speaking, did not belong to 
that period. He died prematurely in 161 8, a victim while still young 
to a wayward life of dissipation and disappointment. His comedies, 
written in the rude dialect of the fish-market and the street, are full 
of native humour and originality and give genuine glimpses of low 
life in old Amsterdam. His songs show that Brederoo had a real 
poetic gift. They reveal, beneath the rough and at times coarse 
and licentious exterior, a nature of fine susceptibilities and almost 
womanly tenderness. Joost van den Vondel was born in the same 
year as Brederoo, 1587, but his career was very different. Vondel 
survived till 1679, and during the whole of his long life his pen was 
never idle. His dramas and poems (in the edition of Van Lennep) 
fill twelve volumes. Such a vast production, as is inevitable, contains 
material of very unequal merit ; but it is not too much to say that 
the highest flights of Vondel's lyric poetry, alike in power of 
expression and imagery, in the variety of metre and the harmonious 
cadence of the verse, deserve a far wider appreciation than they have 
ever received, through the misfortune of having been written in a 
language little known and read. Vondel was the son of an Antwerp 
citizen compelled as a Protestant to fly from his native town after 
its capture by Parma. He took refuge at Cologne, where the poet 



LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 193 

was bom, and afterwards settled at Amsterdam. In that town Vondel 
spent all his life, first as a shopkeeper, then as a clerk in the City 
Savings' Bank. He was ahvays a poor man ; he never sought for the 
patronage of the great, but rather repelled it. His scathing attacks 
on those who had compassed the death of Oldenbarneveldt, and 
his adhesion to the Remonstrant cause brought him in early life 
into disfavour with the party in power, while later his conversion 
to CathoHcism — ^in 1641 — and his eager and zealous advocacy of its 
doctrines, were a perpetual bar to that public recognition of his 
talents which was his due. Vondel never at any time sacrificed his 
convictions to his interest, and he wrote poetry not from the desire 
of wxalth or fame, but because he was a born poet and his mind 
found in verse the natural expression of its thought and emotions. 
But, though Vondel was a poor man, he was not unlearned. On 
the contrar}' he was a diligent student of Greek and Latin literature, 
and translated many of the poetical masterpieces in those languages 
into Dutch verse. Indeed so close was his study that it marred much 
of his own work. Vondel wrote a great number of dramas, but his 
close imitation of the Greek model with its chorus, and his strict 
adherence to the unities, render them artificial in form and lacking 
in movement and life. This is emphasised by the fact that many of 
them are based on Scriptural themes, and by the monotony of the 
Alexandrine metre in which all the dialogues are written. It is in 
the choruses that the poetical genius of Vondel is specially dis- 
played. Lyrical gems in every variety of metre are to be found in 
the Vondelian dramas, alike in his youthful efforts and in those of 
extreme old age. Of the dramas, the finest and the most famous is 
the Lucifer^ 1654, which treats of the expulsion of Lucifer and his 
rebel host of angels from Heaven. We are here in the presence of 
a magnificent effort to deal grandiosely with a stupendous theme. 
The conception of the personality of Lucifer is of heroic pro- 
portions; and a comparison of dates renders it at least probable 
that this Dutch drama passed into John Milton's hands, and that 
distinct traces of the impression it made upon him are to be 
found in certain passages of the Paradise Lost. Vondel also 
produced hundreds of occasional pieces, besides several lengthy 
religious and didactic poems. He even essayed an epic poem on 
Constantine the Great, but it was never completed. Of the 
occasional poems the finest are perhaps the triumph songs over the 

E. H. H. 13 



194 LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 

victories of Frederick Henry, and of the great admirals Tromp and 
De Ruyter. 

Jacob Cats (i 577-1 660) lived, like Vondel, to a great age, but 
in very different circumstances. He was a native of Dordrecht and 
became pensionary of that town, and, though not distinguished as 
a statesman or politician, he was so much respected for his prudence 
and moderation that for twenty-two years he filled the important 
office of Council-Pensionary of Holland and was twice sent as an 
Envoy Extraordinary to England. He was a prolific writer and was 
undoubtedly the most popular and widely-read of the poets of his 
time. His works were to be found in every Dutch homestead, and 
he was familiarly known as " Father Cats." His gifts were, however, 
of a very different order from those of Vondel. His long poems dealt 
chiefly with the events of domestic, every-day existence ; and the 
language, simple, unpretentious and at times commonplace, was 
nevertheless not devoid of a certain restful charm. There are no 
high flights of imagination or of passion, but there are many pas- 
sages as rich in quaint fancy as in wise maxims. With Constantine 
Huyghens (i 596-1 687) the writing of verse was but one of the 
many ways in which one of the most cultured, versatile, and busy 
men of his time found pleasant recreation in his leisure hours. The 
trusted secretary, friend and counsellor of three successive Princes 
of Orange, Huyghens in these capacities was enabled for many 
years to render great service to Frederick Henry, William H and 
William HI, more especially perhaps to the last-named during the 
difficult and troubled period of his minority. Nevertheless all these 
cares and labours of the diplomatist, administrator, courtier and 
man of the world did not prevent him from following his natural 
bent for intellectual pursuits. He was a man of brilliant parts and 
of refined and artistic tastes. Acquainted with many languages and 
literatures, an accomplished musician and musical composer, a 
generous patron of letters and of art, his poetical efforts are 
eminently characteristic of the personality of the man. His volumes 
of short poems — Hofwijck^ Cluijswerck^ Voorhout and Zeestraet 
— contain exquisite and witty pictures of life at the Hague — "the 
village of villages" — and are at once fastidious in form and pithy 
in expression. 
7 It remains to speak of the man who may truly be described as 
the central figure among his literary contemporaries. Pieter 



LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 195 

Cornelisz Hooft (i 583-1 647) was indisputably the first man of 
letters of his time. He sprang from one of the first families of the 
burgher-aristocracy of Amsterdam, in which city his father, 
Cornelis Pietersz Hooft, filled the office of burgomaster no less than 
thirteen times. He began even as a boy to write poetry, and his 
strong bent to literature was deepened by a prolonged tour of more 
than three years in France, Germany and Italy, almost two years 
of which were spent at Florence and Venice. After his return he 
studied jurisprudence at Leyden, but when he was only twenty-six 
years old he received an appointment which was to mould and fix 
the whole of his future career. In 1609 Prince Maurice, in recognition 
of his father's great services, nominated Hooft to the coveted post of 
Drost, or Governor, of Muiden and bailiff of Gooiland. This post 
involved magisterial and administrative duties of a by-no-means 
onerous kind; and the official residence of the Drost, the "High 
House of Muiden," an embattled feudal castle with pleasant 
gardens, lying at the point where at no great distance from Amster- 
dam the river Vecht sleepily empties itself into the Zuyder Zee, 
became henceforth for thirty years a veritable home of letters. 

Hooft's literary life may be divided into two portions. In the 
decade after his settlement at Muiden, he was known as a dramatist 
and a writer of pretty love songs. His dramas — Geerard van Velzeity 
Warenar and Baeto — caught the popular taste and were frequently 
acted, but are not of high merit. His songs and sonnets are distin- 
guished for their musical rhythm and airy lightness of touch, but 
they were mostly penned, as he himself tells us, for his own pleasure 
and that of his friends, not for general publication. There are, 
nevertheless, charming pieces in the collected edition of Hooft's 
poems, and he was certainly an adept in the technicalities of metrical 
craft. But Hooft himself was ambitious of being remembered by 
posterity as a national historian. He aimed at giving such a narrative 
of the struggle against Spain as would entitle him to the name of- 
"the Tacitus of the Netherlands." He wished to produce no mere 
chronicle like those of Bor or Van Meteren, but a literary history 
in the Dutch tongue, whose style should be modelled on that of the 
great Roman writer, whose works Hooft is said to have read through 
fifty- two times. He first, to try his hand, wrote a life of Henry IV 
of France, which attained great success. Louis XIII was so pleased 
with it that he sent the author a gold chain and made him a Knight 

13 — 2 



196 LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 

of St Michael. Thus encouraged, on August 19, 1628, Hooft began 
his Netherland Histories^ and from this date until his death in 1647 
he worked ceaselessly at the magnum opus, which, beginning with 
the abdication of Charles V, he intended to carry on until the 
conclusion of the Twelve Years' Truce. He did not live to bring the 
narrative further than the end of the Leicester regime. In a small 
tower in the orchard at Muiden he kept his papers ; and here, 
undisturbed, he spent all his leisure hours for nineteen years 
engaged on the great task, on which he concentrated all his energies. 
He himself tells us of the enormous pains that he took to get full 
and accurate information, collecting records, consulting archives 
and submitting every portion as it was written to the criticism of 
living authorities, more especially to Constantine Huyghens and 
through him to the Prince of Orange himself. Above all Hooft 
strove, to use his own words, "never to conceal the truth, even were 
it to the injury of the fatherland"; and the carrying-out of this 
principle has given to the great prose-epic that he wrote a per- 
manent value apart altogether from its merits as a remarkable 
literary achievement. And yet perhaps the most valuable legacy 
that Hooft has left to posterity is his collection of letters. Of these 
a recent writer^ has declared " that, though it could not be asserted 
that they [Hooft's letters] threw into the shade the whole of the 
rest of Netherland literature, still the assertion would not be far 
beyond the mark." They deal with every variety of subject, grave 
and gay ; and they give us an insight into the literary, social and 
domestic life of the Holland of his time, which is of more value than 
any history. 

In these letters we find life-like portraits of the scholars, poets, 
dramatists, musicians, singers, courtiers and travellers, who formed 
that brilliant society which received from their contemporaries the 
name of the "Muiden Circle" — Muidener Kring. The genial and 
hospitable Drost loved to see around him those "five or six couple 
of friends," whom he delighted to invite to Muiden. Hooft was 
twice married ; and both his wives, Christina van Erp and Heleonore 
Hellemans,were charming and accomplished women, endowed with 
those social qualities which gave an added attractiveness to the 
Muiden gatherings. Brandt, Hooft's biographer, describes Christina 
as "of surpassing capacity and intelligence, as beautiful, pleasing, 

* Busken Huet, Land van Rembrant, ill, 175. 



LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 197 

affable, discreet, gentle and gracious, as such a man could desire 
to have" ; while, of Heleonore, Hooft himself writes : " Within this 
house one ever finds sunshine, even when it rains without." 

This reference to the two hostesses of Muiden calls attention to 
one of the noteworthy features of social life in the Holland of this 
period — namely, the high level of education among women ( 
belonging to the upper burgher- class. Anna and Maria Tessels- j 
chade Visscher, and Anna Maria Schuurman may be taken as 
examples. Anna, the elder of the two daughters of Roemer Visscher 
( 1 584-1 651), was brought up amidst cultured surroundings. For 
some years after her mother's death she took her place as mistress 
of the house which until 1620 had been the hospitable rendezvous 
of the literary society of Amsterdam. She was herself a woman of 
wide erudition, and her fame as a poet was such as to win for her, 
according to the fashion of the day, the title of "the Dutch Sappho." 
Tesselschade, ten years younger than her sister and educated under 
her fostering care, was however destined to eclipse her, alike by 
her personal charms and her varied accomplishments. If one could 
believe all that is said in her praise by Hooft, Huyghens, Barlaeus, 
Brederoo, Vondel and Cats, she must indeed have been a very 
marvel of perfect womanhood. As a singer she was regarded as 
being without a rival ; and her skill in painting, carving, etching on 
glass and tapestry work was much praised by her numerous 
admirers. Her poetical works, including her translation into Dutch 
verse of T2iSSo'sGerusalemmeLtberata^h3.ve almost all unfortunately 
perished, but a single ode that survives — "the Ode to a Nightingale " 
— is an effort not unworthy of Shelley and shows her possession 
of a true lyrical gift. At Muiden the presence of the "beautiful" 
Tesselschade was almost indispensable. "What feast would be 
complete," wrote Hooft to her, ''at which you were not present? 
Favour us then with your company if it be possible" ; and again: 
"that you will come is my most earnest desire. If you will but be 
our guest, then, I hope, you will cure all our ills." He speaks of her 
to Barlaeus as "the priestess" ; and it is clear that at her shrine all 
the frequenters of Muiden were ready to burn the incense of 
adulation. Both Anna and Tesselschade, like their father, were 
devout Catholics. 

Anna Maria van Schuurman (1607-84) was a woman of a 
different type. She does not seem to have loved or to have shone 



198 LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 

in society, but she was a very phenomenon of learning. She is 
credited with proficiency in painting, carving and other arts ; but 
it is not on these, so to speak, accessory accomplishments that her 
fame rests, but on the extraordinary range and variety of her solid 
erudition. She was at once linguist, scholar, theologian, philosopher, 
scientist and astronomer. She was a remarkable linguist and had a 
thorough literary and scholarly knowledge of French, English, 
German, Italian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, Arabic 
and Ethiopic. Her reputation became widespread ; and, in the latter 
part of her long life, many strangers went to Utrecht, where she 
resided, to try to get a glimpse of so great a celebrity, which was 
not easy owing to her aversion to such visits. 

Turning to the domain of mathematical and physical science and 
of scientific research and discovery, we find that here also the 17th 
century Netherlanders attained the highest distinction. As mathe- 
maticians Simon Stevin, the friend and instructor of Maurice of 
Orange, and Francis van Schooten, the Leyden Professor, who 
numbered among his pupils Christian Huyghens and John de Witt, 
did much excellent work in the earlier years of the century. The 
published writings of De Witt on "the properties of curves" and 
on **the theory of probabilities" show that the greatest of Dutch 
statesmen might have become famous as a mathematician had the 
cares of administration permitted him to pursue the abstract 
studies that he loved. Of the scientific achievements of Christian 
Huyghens (1629-95), ^^^ brilliant son of a brilliant father, it is 
difficult to speak in adequate terms. There is scarcely any name 
in the annals of science that stands higher than his. His abilities, 
as a pure mathematician, place him in the front rank among 
mathematicians of all time ; and yet the services that he rendered 
to mathematical science were surpassed by his extraordinary 
capacity for the combination of theory with practice. His powers 
of invention, of broad generalisation, of originality of thought were 
almost unbounded. Among the mathematical problems with which 
he dealt successfully were the theory of numbers, the squaring of 
the circle and the calculation of chances. To him we owe the con- 
ception of the law of the conservation of energy, of the motion of 
the centre of gravity, and of the undulatory theory of light. He 
expounded the laws of the motion of the pendulum, increased the 
power of the telescope, invented the micrometer, discovered the 



LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 199 

rings and satellites of Saturn, constructed the first pendulum clock, 
and a machine, called the gunpowder machine, in principle the 
precursor of the steam engine. For sheer brain power and inventive 
genius Christian Huyghens was a giant. He spent the later years 
of his life in Paris, where he was one of the founders and original 
members of the Academie des Sciences. 

Two other names of scientists, who gained a European reputa- 
tion for original research and permanent additions to knowledge, 
must be mentioned ; those of Antoni vanLeeuwenhoek(i632-i723), 
and of Jan Swammerdam (1637-80). Leeuwenhoek was a life-long 
observer of minute life. The microscope (the invention of which 
was due to a Dutchman, Cornelius Drebbel) was the favourite 
instrument of his patient investigations, and he was able greatly to 
improve its mechanism and powers. Among the results of his 
labours was the discovery of the infusoria, and the collection of a 
valuable mass of information concerning the circulation of the blood 
and the structure of the eye and brain. Swammerdam was a naturalist 
who devoted himself to the study of the habits and the metamor- 
phoses of insects, and he may be regarded as the founder of this most 
important branch of scientific enquiry. His work forms the basis on 
which all subsequent knowledge on this subject has been built up. 

To say that the school of Dutch painting attained its zenith in 
the period of Frederick Henry and the decades which preceded and 
followed it, is scarcely necessary. It was the age of Rembrandt. The 
works of that great master and of his contemporaries, most of whom 
were influenced and many dominated by his genius, are well known 
to every lover of art, and are to be seen in every collection of pictures 
in Europe. One has, however, to visit the Rijks Museum at Amster- 
dam and the Mauritshuis at the Hague to appreciate what an 
extraordinary outburst of artistic skill and talent had at this time 
its birth within the narrow limits of the northern Netherlands. To 
the student of Dutch history these two galleries are a revelation, 
for there we see 17th century Holland portrayed before us in every 
phase of its busy and prosperous public, social and domestic life. 
Particularly is this the case with the portraits of individuals and of 
civic and gild groups by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Van der Heist and 
their followers, which form an inimitable series that has rarely been 
equalled. To realise to what an extent in the midst of war the fine 
arts flourished in Holland, a mere list of the best-known painters 



200 LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 

of the period will suffice, it tells its own tale. They are given in 
the order of their dates : Frans Hals (i 584-1666), Gerard Honthorst 
( 1 592-1 662), Jan van Goyen (i 596-1656), Jan Wyvants (1600-07), 
Albert Cuyp (1606-72), Jan Lievens (1607-63), Rembrandt van 
Rhyn (1608-69), Gerard Terburg (1608-81), Adrian Brouwer 
(1608-41), Ferdinand Bol (1609-81), Salomon Koning (1609-74), 
Andreas Both (1609-60), Jan Both (1610-62), Adrian van Ostade 
(1610-85), Bartolomaus van der Heist (1613-70), Gerard Douw 
(1613-80), Gabriel Metzu (1615-58), Govaert Flinck (1615-60), 
Isaac van Ostade (i 617-71), Aart van der Neer (1619-83), Pieter 
de Koningh (1619-89), Philip Wouvermans (1620-68), Pieter van 
der Hoogh ( ?), Nicolas Berchem (1624-83), Paul Potter (1625-54), 
Jacob Ruy sdael ( 1 625-8 1 ) , Meindert Hobbema ( ?) , Jan Steen (1626- 
79), Samuel van Hoogstraeten (1627-78), Ludolf Backhuizen (163 1- 
1709), Jan van der Meer of Delft (1632-?), Nicholas Maes (1632- 
93), William van der Velde (163 3-1 707), Frans van Mieris (1635- 
81), Caspar Netscher (1639-84), Adrian van der Velde (1639-72). 
It is strange that little is known of the lives of the great majority 
of these men ; they are scarcely more than names, but their memory 
survives in their works. No better proof could be brought of the 
general abundance of money and at the same time of the wide- 
spread culture of the land than the fact that art found among all 
classes so many patrons. The aristocratic burgher-magistrates and 
the rich merchants loved to adorn their houses with portraits and 
a choice selection of pictures; it was a favourite investment of 
capital, and there was a certain amount of rivalry among the 
principal families in a town like Amsterdam in being possessed of 
a fine collection. The " Six" collection still remains as an example 
upon the walls of the 17th century house of Burgomaster Six, 
where it was originally placed. The governing bodies of gilds 
and boards, members of corporations, the officers of the town 
schutterij or of archer companies delighted to have their portraits 
hung around their council chambers or halls of assembly. In the 
well-to-do farmer-homesteads and even in the dwellings of the 
poorer classes pictures were to be found, as one may see in a large 
number of the "interiors" which were the favourite subject of the 
genre painters of the day. But with all this demand the artists 
themselves do not seem to have in any case been highly paid. The 
prices were low. Even Rembrandt himself, whose gains were 



LETTERS, SCIENCE AND ART 201 

probably much larger than those of any of his contemporaries, and 
whose first wife, Saskia Uilenburg, was a woman of means, became 
bankrupt in 1656, and this at a time when he was still in his prime, 
and his powers at their height. Some of his most famous pictures 
were produced at a later date. 

During the Thirty Years' War Holland became the centre of the 
publishing and book-selling trade ; andLeyden and Amsterdam were 
famed as the foremost seats of printing in Europe. The devastation 
of Germany and the freedom of the press in the United Provinces com- 
bined to bring about this result. Thebooks producedbythe Elseviers 
at Leyden and by Van Waesberg and Cloppenburch at Amsterdam 
are justly regarded as fine specimens of the printer's art, while the 
maps of Willem Jansz Blaeu and his Dutch contemporaries were 
quite unrivalled, and marked a great step forward in cartography. 

This chapter must not conclude without a reference to the part 
taken by the Netherlanders in the development of modern music 
and the modern stage. The love of music was widespread ; and the 
musicians of the Netherlands were famed alike as composers and 
executants. It was from its earlier home in the Low Countries that 
the art of modern music spread into Italy and Germany and indeed 
into all Europe. Similarly in the late Middle Ages the people of the 
Netherlands were noted for their delight in scenic representations 
and for the picturesque splendour with which they were carried 
out. The literary gilds, named Chambers of Rhetoric, never took 
such deep root elsewhere ; and in the performance of Mystery Plays 
and Moralities and of lighter comic pieces {chuttementen and 
cluyten\ many thousands of tradespeople and artisans took part. In 
the 17th century all the Chambers of Rhetoric had disappeared with 
the single exception of the famous " Old Chamber " at Amsterdam, 
known as The Blossoming Eglantine^ to which the leading spirits of 
the Golden Age of Dutch Literature belonged and which presided 
over the birth of the Dutch Stage. From the first the stage was 
popular and well-supported ; and the newtheatre of Amsterdam, the 
Schouburg (completed in 1637), became speedily renowned for the 
completeness of its arrangements and the ability of its actors . Such in- 
deed was their reputation that travelling companies of Dutch players 
visited the chief cities of Germany, Austria and Denmark, finding 
everywhere a ready welcome and reaping a rich reward, whilst at 
Stockholm for a time a permanent Dutch theatre was established. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM II. 
THE GREAT ASSEMBLY 

Upon the death of Frederick Henry of Orange (March, 1647), his 
only son succeeded to his titles and estates and also by virtue of the 
Act of Survivance to the offices of Stadholder in six provinces and 
to the Captain- Generalship and Admiral- Generalship of the Union. 
William was but twenty-one years of age and, having been excluded 
during Frederick Henry's lifetime from taking any active part in 
affairs of state, he had turned his energies into the pursuit of 
pleasure, and had been leading a gay and dissolute life. His accession 
to power was, however, speedily to prove that he was possessed of 
great abilities, a masterful will and a keen and eager ambition. He 
had strongly disapproved of the trend of the peace negotiations at 
Miinster, and would have preferred with the help of the French 
to have attempted to drive the Spaniards out of the southern 
Netherlands. The preliminaries were, however, already settled in 
the spring of 1647; and the determination of the province of 
Holland and especially of the town of Amsterdam to conclude an 
advantageous peace with Spain and to throw over France rendered 
the opposition of the young stadholder unavailing. But William, 
though he had perforce to acquiesce in the treaty of Miinster, was 
nevertheless resolved at the earliest opportunity to undo it. Thus 
from the outset he found himself in a pronounced antagonism with 
the province of Holland, which could only issue in a struggle for 
supremacy similar to that with which his uncle Maurice was 
confronted in the years that followed the truce of 1609, and, to a 
less degree, his father after 1640. 

Commerce was the predominant interest of the burgher- 
aristocracies who held undisputed sway in the towns of Holland ; 
and they, under the powerful leadership of Amsterdam, were 
anxious that the peace they had secured should not be disturbed. 
They looked forward to lightening considerably the heavy load of 
taxation which burdened them, by reducing the number of troops 



THE GREAT ASSEMBLY 203 

and of ships of war maintained by the States. To this policy the 
young prince was resolutely opposed, and he had on his side the 
prestige of his name and a vast body of popular support even in 
Holland itself, among that great majority of the inhabitants, both 
of town and country, who were excluded from all share in govern- 
ment and administration and were generally Orangist in sympathy. 
He had also with him the officers of the army and navy and the 
preachers. His chief advisers were his cousin William Frederick, 
Stadholder of Friesland,and Cornelisvan Aerssens (son of Francis) 
lord of Sommelsdijk. By the agency of Sommelsdijk he put himself 
in secret communication with Count d'Estrades, formerly French 
ambassador at the Hague, now Governor of Dunkirk, and through 
him with Mazarin, with the view of concluding an alliance with 
France for the conquest of the Spanish Netherlands, and for 
sending a joint expedition to England to overthrowthe Parliamentary 
forces and establish the Stewarts on the throne. Mazarin was at this 
time, however, far too much occupied by his struggle with the 
Fronde to listen to the overtures of a young man who had as yet 
given no proof of being in a position to give effect to his ambitious 
proposals. Nevertheless the prince was in stern earnest. In April, 
1648, his brother-in-law, James, Duke of York, had taken refuge 
at the Hague, and was followed in July by the Prince of Wales. 
William received them with open arms and, urged on by his wife, 
the Princess Royal, and by her aunt the exiled Queen of Bohemia, 
who with her family was still residing at the Hague, he became 
even more eager to assist in effecting a Stewart restoration than in 
renewing the war with Spain. The difficulties in his way were 
great. In 1648 public opinion in the States on the whole favoured 
the Parliamentary cause. But, when the Parliament sent over 
Dr Doreslaer and Walter Strickland as envoys to complain of 
royal ships being allowed to use Dutch harbours, the States- 
General, through the influence of the prince, refused them an 
audience. The Estates of Holland on this gave a signal mark of 
their independence and antagonism by receiving Doreslaer and 
forbidding the royal squadron to remain in any of the waters of 
the Province. 

The news of the trial of King Charles for high-treason brought 
about a complete revulsion of feeling. The Prince of Wales himself 
in person begged the States- General to intervene on his father's 



204 THE STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM II 

behalf; and the proposal met with universal approval. It was at 
once agreed that Adrian Pauw, the now aged leader of the anti- 
Orange party in Holland, should go to London to intercede for the 
king's life. He was courteously received on January 26 O.S., and was 
granted an audience by the House of Commons, but the decision 
had already been taken and his efforts were unavailing. The 
execution of the king caused a wave of horror to sweep over the 
Netherlands, and an address of condolence was offered by the 
States-General to the Prince of Wales ; but, to meet the wishes of 
the delegates of Holland, he was addressed not as King of Great 
Britain, but simply as King Charles II, and it was agreed that 
Joachimi,the resident ambassador in London, should not be recalled 
at present. The new English Government on their part sent over 
once more DrDoreslaer with friendly proposals for drawing the two 
republics into closer union. Doreslaer, who had taken part in the 
trial of Charles I, was specially obnoxious to the royalist exiles, who 
had sought refuge in Holland. He landed on May 9. Three days 
later he was assassinated as he was dining at his hotel. The 
murderers, five or six in number, managed to make their escape and 
were never apprehended. 

Although highly incensed by this outrage, the English Govern- 
ment did not feel itself strong enough to take decided action. The 
Estates of Holland expressed through Joachimi their abhorrence at 
what had occurred; and the Parliament instructed Strickland to 
approach the States-General again with friendly advances. The 
States-General refused to grant him an audience, while receiving 
the envoy despatched by Charles II from Scotland to announce 
his accession. The English Council of State had no alternative but 
to regard this as a deliberate insult. Strickland was recalled and 
left Holland, July 22. On September 26 Joachimi was ordered to 
leave London. The breach between the two countries seemed to be 
complete, but the Estates of Holland, who for the sake of their 
commerce dreaded the thought of a naval war, did all in their power 
to workfor an accommodation. They received Strickland in a public 
audience before his departure, and they ventured to send a special 
envoy to Whitehall, Gerard Schaep, January 22, to treat with the 
Parliament. By this action the Provincial Estates flouted the 
authority of the States- General and entered into negotiations on 
their own account, as if they were an independent State. The. 



THE GREAT ASSEMBLY 205 

Hollanders were anxious to avoid war almost at any price, but 
circumstances proved too strong for them. 

In order to carry out this pacifist policy the Estates of Holland 
now resolved to effect a large reduction of expenditure by dis- 
banding a portion of the troops and ships. When the peace of 
Miinster was signed the States possessed an army of 60,000 men, 
and all parties were agreed that this large force might safely be 
reduced. In July 1648, a drastic reduction was carried out, twenty- 
five thousand men being disbanded. The Estates of Holland, 
however, demanded a further retrenchment of military charges, but 
met with the strong opposition of the Prince and his cousin William 
Frederick, who declared that an army of at least 30,000 was 
absolutely necessary for garrisoning the frontier fortresses and 
safeguarding the country against hostile attack. Their views had 
the support of all the other provinces, but Holland was obdurate. 
In Holland commerce reigned supreme ; and the burgher-regents 
and merchants were suspicious of the prince's warlike designs and 
were determined to thwart them. Finding that the States-General 
refused to disband at their dictation some fifty-five companies of 
the excellent foreign troops who formed the kernel of the States' 
army, the Provincial Estates proceeded to take matters into their 
own hands, and discharged a body of 600 foreign troops which were 
paid by the Province. In doing this they were acting illegally. The 
old question of the sovereign rights of the Provinces, which had been 
settled in 1 61 9 by the sword of Maurice, was once more raised. The 
States- General claimed to exercise the sole authority in military 
matters. There were not seven armies in the Union, but one army 
under the supreme command of the captain-general appointed by 
the States- General. The captain-general was now but a young and 
inexperienced man, but he had none of the hesitation and indecision 
shown by his uncle Maurice in the troubles of 161 8-19, and did 
not shrink from the conflict with the dominant province to which 
he was challenged. 

For some time, indeed, wrangling went on. There was a strong 
minority in the Estates of Holland opposed to extreme measures ; 
and the council- pensionary, Jacob Cats, was a moderate man 
friendly to the House of Orange. An accommodation was reached 
on the subject of the disbanding of the 600 foreign troops, but the 
conflict was renewed, and in the middle of 1650 it assumed grave 



2o6 THE STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM II 

proportions. The heart and soul of the opposition to the prince was 
Amsterdam. WiUiam had for some time been urged by his Friesland 
cousin to take action, since the attitude of Amsterdam threatened 
the dissolution of the Union. The prince was at this time engaged 
in negotiating with France, but nothing had as yet been settled, 
and his projects were not ripe for execution. Nevertheless it was 
absolutely necessary for their realisation that the military forces 
should not be excessively reduced. Under his influence the States- 
General decided that, though the number of troops in the several 
regiments should be decreased, the cadres of all regiments with 
their full quota of officers should be retained. To this the Estates 
of Holland dissented, and finding that they could not prevail, they 
determined on a daring step. Orders were sent (June i, 1650) to 
the colonels of the regiments on the Provincial war-sheet to 
disband their regiments on pain of stoppage of pay. The colonels 
refused to take any orders save from the Council of State and the 
captain-general. The prince accordingly, with William Frederick 
and the Council of State, appeared in the States- General and 
appealed to them to uphold the colonels in their refusal. There 
could be no question that the Estates of Holland were hopelessly 
in the wrong, for their representatives in the States-General had in 
1623, 1626, 1630 and 1642 voted for the enforcement on recalcitrant 
provinces of the full quota at which they were assessed for the 
payment of the army of the Union. The States- General, June 5, 
therefore determined to send a ''notable deputation" to the towns 
of Holland. The prince was asked to head the deputation, the 
members of which were to be chosen by him ; and he was invested 
with practically dictatorial powers to take measures for the keeping 
of the peace and the maintenance of the Union. In doing this the 
Generality were themselves acting ultra vires. The States- General 
was an assembly consisting of the representatives of the Provincial 
Estates. It could deal or treat therefore only with the Estates 
of the several provinces, not with the individual towns within a 
province. In resisting the interference of the Estates of Holland 
with matters that concerned the Union as a whole, they were 
themselves infringing, by the commission given to the "notable 
deputation," the jurisdiction of the Provincial Estates over their 
own members. 

The prince set out on June 8, and visited all the ** privileged" 



THE GREAT ASSEMBLY 207 

towns. The result was more than disappointing. The Council of the 
premier municipalit}% Dordrecht, set the example by declaring that 
they were answerable only to the Estates of the Province. Schiedam, 
Alkmaar, Edam and Monnikendam gave the same reply. Delft 
and Haarlem were willing to receive the prince as stadholder, 
but not the deputation. Amsterdam, under the influence of the 
brothers Andries and ComeUs Bicker, went even further and 
after some parlepng declined to admit either the deputation or 
the prince. On June 25 William returned to the Hague bitterly 
chagrined by his reception and determined to crush resistance by 
force. 

The stroke he planned was to seize the representatives of six 
towns which had been specially obstinate in their opposition, and 
at the same time to occupy Amsterdam with an armed force. His 
preparations were quickly made. On July 30 an invitation was sent 
to Jacob de Witt, ex-burgomaster of Dordrecht, and five other 
prominent members of the Estates of Holland, to visit the prince. 
On their arrival they were arrested by the stadholder's guard, and 
carried off as prisoners to the Castle of Loevestein. WilHam had 
meanwhile left the execution of the coup-de-main against Amsterdam 
to his cousin William Frederick. The arrangements for gathering 
together secretly a large force from various garrisons were skilfully 
made, and it was intended at early dawn to seize unexpectedly one 
of the gates, and then to march in and get possession of the town 
without opposition. The plan, however, accidentally miscarried. 
Some of the troops in the night having lost their way, attracted the 
notice of a postal messenger on his way to Amsterdam, who 
reported their presence to the burgomaster, Comelis Bicker. Bicker 
at once took action. The gates were closed, the council summoned, 
and \'igorous measures of defence taken. William Frederick there- 
fore contented himself \\i\h. surrounding the cit}', so as to prevent 
ingress or egress from the gates. On the next morning, July 31, 
W^illiam, having learnt that the surprise attack had failed, set out 
for Amsterdam, determined to compel its surrender. The council, 
fearing the serious injur}^ a siege would cause to its commerce, 
opened negotiations (August i). The prince, however, insisting on 
unconditional submission, no other course was open. Amsterdam 
undertook to offer no further opposition to the proposals of the 
States-General, and was compelled to agree to the humiUating 



2o8 THE STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM II 

demand of the stadholder that the brothers Bicker should not only 
resign their posts in the municipal government, but should be 
declared ineligible for any official position in the future. 

The Prince of Orange had now secured the object at which he 
had aimed. His authority henceforth rested on a firm basis. His 
opponents had been overthrown and humiliated. The Estates of 
six provinces thanked him for the success of his efforts, and he on 
his part met the general wish for economy by agreeing to a reduction 
of the foreign troops in the pay of the States on the distinct under- 
standing that only the States- General had the right to disband any 
portion of the forces, not the provincial paymasters. In the flush 
of triumph William at the end of August left the Hague for his 
country seat at Dieren, nominally for hunting and for rest, in reality 
to carry on secret negotiations with France for the furtherance of 
his warlike designs. The complete defeat of Charles II at the battle 
of Worcester, September 3, must have been a severe blow to his 
hopes for the restoration of the Stuarts, but it did not deter him 
from pursuing his end. With d'Estrades, now Governor of Dunkirk, 
the prince secretly corresponded, and through him matters were 
fully discussed with the French Government. In a letter written 
from the Hague on October 2, William expressed a strong wish that 
d'Estrades should come in person to visit him; and it was the 
intention of d'Estrades to accept this invitation as soon as he had 
received from Paris the copy of a draft- treaty, which was being 
prepared. This draft- treaty, which was probably drawn up by 
Mazarin, reached d'Estrades in the course of October, but cir- 
cumstantial evidence proves that it was never seen by William. Its 
provisions were as follows. Both Powers were to declare war on 
Spain and attack Flanders and Antwerp. The Dutch were to 
besiege Antwerp, which city, if taken, was to become the personal 
appanage of the Prince of Orange. When the Spanish power in the 
southern Netherlands had been overthrown, then France and the 
United Provinces were to send a joint expedition to England to 
place Charles II on the throne. Whether the prince would have 
approved these proposals we know not ; in all probability he would 
have declined to commit himself to a plan of such a far-reaching 
and daring character, for he was aware of the limitations of his power, 
and knew that even his great influence would have been insufficient 
to obtain the consent of the States- General to an immediate 



THE GREAT ASSEMBLY 209 

renewal of war. Speculation however is useless, for an inexorable 
fate raised other issues. 

On October 8 the stadholder returned to Dieren, on the 27th 
he fell ill with an attack of small-pox. He was at once taken back 
to the Hague and for some days he progressed favourably, but 
the illness suddenly took a turn for the worse and he expired on 
November 6. The news of the prince's death fell hke a shock 
upon the country. Men could scarcely believe their ears. William 
was only 24 years old ; and, though his wife gave birth to a son a 
week later, he left no heir capable of succeeding to the high offices 
that he had held. The event was the more tragic, following, as it did, 
so swiftly upon the coup d'etat of the previous summer, and because 
of the youth and high promise of the deceased prince. William H 
was undoubtedly endowed with high and brilliant qualities of 
leadership, and he had proved his capacity for action with unusual 
decision and energy. Had his life not been cut short, the course of 
European politics might have been profoundly changed. 

As was to be expected, the burgher-regents of Holland, when once 
the first shock was over, lost no time in taking advantage of the 
disappearance of the man who had so recently shown that he 
possessed the power of the sword and meant to be their master. 
The States-General at once met and requested the Provincial 
Estates to take steps to deal with the situation. The Estates of 
Holland proposed that an extraordinary assembly should be 
summoned. This was agreed to by the States- Genera 1 ; and ''the 
Great Assembly " met on January 11, 165 1. In the meantime the 
Holland regents had been acting. The Estates of that province were 
resolved to abolish the stadholderates and to press the States- 
General to suspend the offices of Captain- and Admiral- General 
of the Union. Utrecht, Gelderland, Overyssel and Zeeland were 
induced to follow their example. Groningen, however, elected 
William Frederick of Friesland to be stadholder in the place of 
his cousin. 

The "States party" in Holland had for their leaders the aged 
Adrian Pauw, who had for so many years been the moving spirit 
of the opposition in powerful Amsterdam to Frederick Henry's 
authority, and Jacob de Witt, the imprisoned ex-burgomaster of 
Dordrecht. The "Orange party" was for the moment practically 
impotent. Stunned by the death of their youthful chief, they were 

E.H.H. 14 



2IO THE STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM II 

hopelessly weakened and disorganised by the dissensions and 
rivalries which surrounded the cradle of the infant Prince of 
Orange. The princess royal quarrelled with her mother-in-law, 
Amalia von Solms,over the guardianship of the child. Mary asserted 
her right to be sole guardian ; the dowager-princess wished to have 
her son-in-law, the Elector of Brandenburg, associated with her as 
co-guardian. After much bickering the question was at last referred 
to the Council of State, who appointed the princess royal, the 
dowager-princess and the elector jointly to the office. This decision 
however was far from effecting a reconciliation between the mother 
and the grandmother. Mary did not spare the Princess Amalia the 
humiliation of knowing that she regarded her as inferior in rank 
and social standing to the eldest daughter of a King of England. 
There was rivalry also between the male relatives William Frederick, 
Stadholder of Friesland,and Joan Maurice, the "Brazilian," both of 
them being ambitious of filling the post of captain-general, either 
in succession to the dead prince, or as lieutenant in the name of his 
son. In these circumstances a large number of the more moderate 
Orangists were ready to assist the ''States party" in preventing 
any breach of the peace and securing that the government of the 
republic should be carried on, if not in the manner they would 
have wished, at least on stable and sound lines, so far as possible in 
accordance with precedent. 

The Great Assembly met on January 1 1 , 165 1 , in the Count's Hall 
in the Binnenhof at the Hague. The sittings lasted until September, 
for there were many important matters to be settled on which the 
representatives of the seven provinces were far from being in entire 
agreement. The chief controversies centred around the interpreta- 
tion of the Utrecht Act of Union, the Dordrecht principles, and 
military affairs. The last-named proved the most thorny. The general 
result was decentralisation, and the strengthening of the Provincial 
Estates at the expense of the States-General. It was agreed that the 
established religion should be that formulated at Dordrecht, that 
the sects should be kept in order, and the placards against Roman 
Catholicism enforced. In accordance with the proposal of Holland 
there was to be no captain- or admiral-general. Brederode, with 
the rank of field-marshal, was placed at the head of the army. The 
Provincial Estates were entrusted with considerable powers over 
the troops in their pay. The effect of this, and of the decision of 



THE GREAT ASSEMBLY 211 

five provinces to dispense with a stadholder and to transfer his 
power and prerogatives to the Estates, was virtually the establish- 
ment in permanent authority of a number of close municipal 
corporations. It meant the supersession alike of monarchy and 
popular government, both of which were to a certain extent 
represented by the authority vested in, and the influence exerted 
by, the stadholder princes of Orange, in favour of a narrow 
oligarchic rule. Moreover, in this confederation of seven semi- 
sovereign provinces, Holland, which contributed to the strength, 
the finances and the commerce of the Union more than all 
the other provinces added together, obtained now, in the absence 
of an "eminent head," that position of predominance, during the 
stadholderless period which now follows, for which its statesmen 
had so long striven. When the amiable Jacob Cats, the Council- 
Pensionary of Holland, closed the Great Assembly in a flowery 
speech describing the great work that it had accomplished, a new 
chapter in the history of the republic may be said to have begun. 



14- 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE RISE OF JOHN DE WITT. 
THE FIRST ENGLISH WAR 

Before the sittings of the Great Assembly had come to an end, 
a young statesman, destined to play the leading part in the govern- 
ment of the Dutch republic during two decades, had already made 
his mark. After the death of William II Jacob de Witt was not only 
reinstated in his former position at Dordrecht but on December 21 , 
1650, John, his younger son, at the age of 25 years was appointed 
pensionary of that town. In this capacity he was ex officio spokesman 
of the deputation sent to represent Dordrecht in the Great Assembly. 
His knowledge, his readiness and persuasiveness of speech, his in- 
dustry and his gifts at once of swift insight and orderly thoroughness, 
quickly secured for him a foremost place both in the deliberations 
of the Assembly and in the conduct of the negotiations with the 
English Parliament, which at this time required very delicate 
handling. 

The many disputes, which had arisen between England and the 
United Provinces during the period between the accession of 
James I and the battle of the Downs in 1639, had never been settled. 
The minds of Englishmen were occupied with other and more 
pressing matters while the Civil War lasted. But the old sores 
remained open. Moreover the refusal of the States- General to 
receive the Parliamentary envoys, the murder of Doreslaer, and the 
protection afforded to royalist refugees, had been additional causes 
of resentment ; but the English Council had not felt strong enough 
to take action. The death of the Prince of Orange, following so 
quickly upon the complete overthrow of Charles II at Worcester, 
appeared at first to open out a prospect of friendlier relations 
between the two neighbouring republics. In January, 1651, the 
Great Assembly formally recognised the Commonwealth and 
determined to send back to his old post in London the veteran 
ambassador, Joachimi, who had been recalled. The English 
government on their part anticipated his return by despatching, 
in March, Oliver St John and Walter Strickland on a special 



THE FIRST ENGLISH WAR 213 

embassy to the Hague. They reached that city on March 27, 1651, 
and presented their credentials to the Great Assembly two days 
later. Their reception in the streets was anything but favourable. 
The feeling among the populace was predominantly Orangist and 
Stewart; and St John and Strickland, greeted with loud cries of 
"regicides" and many abusive epithets, remembering the fate of 
Doreslaer, were in fear of their lives. 

On April 4 a conference was opened between the envoys and 
six commissioners appointed by the States to consider the proposals 
of the English Government for " a more strict and intimate alliance 
and union" between the two states. The Dutch quickly perceived 
that what the English really wanted was nothing less than such a 
binding alliance or rather coalition as would practically merge the 
lesser state in the greater. But the very idea of such a loss of the 
independence that they had only just won was to the Netherlanders 
unthinkable. The negotiations came to a deadlock. Meanwhile 
St John and Strickland continued to have insults hurled at them 
by Orangists and royalist refugees, foremost amongst them Prince 
Edward, son of the Queen of Bohemia. The Parliament threatened 
to recall the envoys, but consented that they should remain, on the 
undertaking of the Estates of Holland to protect them from further 
attacks, and to punish the offenders. Newproposals were accordingly 
made for an offensive and defensive alliance (without any suggestion 
of a union), coupled with the condition that both States should bind 
themselves not to allow the presence within their boundaries of 
avowed enemies of the other — in other words the expulsion of the 
members and adherents of the house of Stewart, including the 
princess royal and the Queen of Bohemia with their children. In 
the face of the strong popular affection for the infant Prince of 
Orange and his mother, even the Estates of Holland dared not 
consider such terms, and the States-General would have angrily re- 
jected them. After some further parleying therefore about fisheries 
and trade restrictions, it was felt that no agreement could be reached ; 
and St John and Strickland returned to England on July 31, 1651. 

Their failure created a very bad impression upon the Parliament. 
All the old complaints against the Dutch were revived ; and, as they 
had refused the offer of friendship that had been made to them, it 
was resolved that strong measures should be taken to obtain redress 
for past grievances and for the protection of English trade interests. 



214 THE RISE OF JOHN DE WITT 

At the instance of St John, the famous Navigation Act was passed 
by the Parliament, October 9, 1651. This Act struck a mortal blow 
at the Dutch carrying trade by forbidding the importation of 
foreign goods into English ports except in English bottoms, or in 
those of the countries which had produced the goods. Scarcely less 
injurious was the prohibition to aliens to fish in British waters, and 
the withdrawal of the rights based on the Magnus Inter cursus^ for 
the maintenance of which Dutch statesmen had so long and 
strenuously fought. There was consternation in Holland, and the 
States- General determined to send a special embassy to London. 
At the same time the Estates of Holland replaced Jacob Cats by 
appointing the aged Adrian Pauw, a man in whose ripe judgment 
they had confidence, to the office of council-pensionary. The 
chosen envoys were Jacob Cats and Gerard Schaep from Holland, 
Paulus van der Perre from Zeeland, all three representative of the 
two maritime and trading provinces. They arrived in England on 
December 27, 1651. Their instructions were to secure the with- 
drawal of the Navigation Act and to try to negotiate a new treaty 
of commerce on the basis of the Magnus Inter cur sus. They were also 
to protest strongly against the action of English privateers, who, 
having been given letters of marque to prey upon French commerce, 
had been stopping and searching Dutch merchantmen on the 
ground that they might be carrying French goods. The English 
government, however, met the Dutch complaints by raking up the 
long list of grievances that had stirred up a bitter feeling of popular 
hatred against the United Provinces in England, and by demand- 
ing reparation. They further demanded that Dutch commanders 
should acknowledge England's sovereignty by striking flag and sail 
and by firing a salute, whenever any of their squadrons met English 
ships **in the narrow seas." 

It was these last two questions, the right of search and the 
striking of the flag, that were to be the real causes of the outbreak 
of a war that was desired by neither of the two governments. But 
popular feeling and the course of events was too strong for them. 
The news of the seizure of their vessels, not merely by privateers, 
but by an English squadron under Ayscue in the West Indies, had 
caused intense indignation and alarm in Holland, and especially 
in Amsterdam. Pressure was brought to bear on the States- General 
and the Admiralties, who in pursuance of economy had reduced the 



THE FIRST ENGLISH WAR 215 

fleet to seventy-five ships. It was resolved therefore, on February 22, 
to fit out an additional 1 50 vessels. The Council of State, on hearing 
of this, began also to make ready for eventualities. Negotiations were 
still proceeding between the two countries, when Martin Tromp, 
the victor of the battle of the Downs, now lieutenant-admiral of 
Holland, was sent to sea with fifty ships and instructions to protect 
Dutch merchantmen from interference, and to see that the States 
suffered no affront. Nothing was actually said about the striking 
of the flag. 

The situation was such that an armed collision was almost certain 
to happen with such an admiral as Tromp in command. It came 
suddenly through a misunderstanding. The Dutch admiral while 
cruising past Dover met , on May 29 , fifteen English ships under Blake . 
The latter fired a warning shot across the bows of Tromp 's ship to 
signify that the flag should be struck. Tromp declared that he had 
given orders to strike the flag, but that Blake again fired before there 
was time to carry them out. Be this as it may, the two fleets were 
soon engaged in a regular fight, and, the English being reinforced, 
Tromp withdrew at nightfall to the French coast, having lost tv/o 
ships. Great was the anger aroused in England, where the Dutch 
were universally regarded as the aggressors. In the Netherlands, 
where the peace party was strong, many were disposed to blame 
Tromp despite his protests. Adrian Pauw himself left hastily for 
London, John de Witt being appointed to act as his deputy during 
his absence. Pauw's strenuous efforts however to maintain peace 
were all in vain, despite the strong leanings of Cromwell towards 
a peaceful solution. But popular feeling on both sides was now 
aroused. The States- General, fearing that the Orangists would stir 
up a revolt, if humiliating terms were submitted to, stiffened their 
attitude. The result was that the envoys left London on June 30, 
1652; and war was declared. 

The Dutch statesmen who sought to avoid hostilities were right. 
All the advantages were on the side of their enemies. The Dutch 
merchant-fleets covered the seas, and the welfare of the land depended 
on commerce. The English had little to lose commercially. Their 
war-fleet too, though inferior in the number of ships, was superior 
in almost all other respects. The Stuarts had devoted great attention 
to the fleet and would have done more but for lack of means. 
Charles' much abused ship-money was employed by him for the 



2i6 THE RISE OF JOHN DE WITT 

creation of the first English professional navy. It had been largely 
increased by the Parliament after 1648 ; and its "generals," Blake, 
Penn and Ayscue, had already acquired much valuable experience 
in their encounters with the royalist squadron under Prince Rupert, 
and in long cruises to the West Indies for the purpose of forcing 
the English colonies to acknowledge parliamentary rule. The crews 
therefore were well trained, and the ships were larger, stronger and 
better armed than those of the Dutch. The position of England, 
lying as it did athwart the routes by which the Dutch merchant- 
fleets must sail, was a great advantage. Even more important was 
the advantage of having a central control, whereas in the Nether- 
lands there were five distinct Boards of Admiralty, to some extent 
jealous of each other, and now lacking the supreme direction of an 
admiral-general. 

The war began by a series of English successes and of 
Dutch misfortunes. Early in July, 1652, Blake at the head of sixty 
ships set sail for the north to intercept the Dutch Baltic com- 
merce, and to destroy their fishing fleet off the north of Scotland. 
He left Ayscue with a small squadron to guard the mouth of the 
Thames. Tromp meanwhile had put to sea at the head of nearly 
a hundred ships. Ayscue succeeded in intercepting a fleet of Dutch 
merchantmen near Calais, all of them being captured or burnt, while 
Blake with the main force off the north coast of Scotland destroyed 
the Dutch fishing fleet and their convoy. After these first blows 
against the enemy's commerce good fortune continued to attend 
the English. Tromp was prevented from following Blake by strong 
northerly winds. He then turned upon Ayscue, whose small force 
he must have overwhelmed, but for a sudden change to a southerly 
gale. The Dutch admiral now sailed northwards and (July 25) found 
the English fleet off the Shetlands. A violent storm arose, from the 
force of which Blake was protected, while the Dutch vessels 
were scattered far and wide. On the following day, out of ninety- 
nine ships Tromp could only collect thirty-five, and had no 
alternative but to return home to refit. 

Before Tromp 's return another Dutch fleet under Michael de 
Ruyter had put to sea to escort a number of outward-bound 
merchantmen through the Channel, and to meet and convoy back 
the home-coming ships. He had twenty-three warships and three 
fireships under his command. Ayscue had previously sailed up 



THE FIRST ENGLISH WAR 217 

Channel with forty men-of-war and five fireships for a similar pur- 
pose. The two fleets met on August 16, and despite his inferiority 
of force De Ruyter forced Ayscue to withdraw into Plymouth, and 
was able to bring his convoy home to safety. 

The ill-success of Tromp, though he was in no way to blame for 
it, caused considerable alarm and discontent in Holland. His 
enemies of the States party in that province took advantage of it 
to suspend the gallant old seaman from his command. He was an 
Orangist ; and, as the Orange partisans were ever)rwhere clamorously 
active, the admiral was suspect. In his place Cornelisz Witte de With 
was appointed, a capable sailor, but disliked in the fleet as much as 
Tromp was beloved. De With effected a junction with De Ruyter 
and with joint forces they attacked Blake on October 8, near the shoal 
known as the Kentish Knock. The English fleet was considerably 
more powerful than the Dutch, and the desertion of De With by 
some twenty ships decided the issue. The Dutch had to return 
home with some loss. The English were elated with their victory 
and thought that they would be safe from further attack until the 
spring. Blake accordingly was ordered to send a squadron of 
twenty sail to the Mediterranean, where the Dutch admiral Jan 
van Galen held the command of the sea. But they were deceived in 
thinking that the struggle in the Channel was over for the winter. 
The deserters at the Kentish Knock were punished, but the un- 
popularity of De With left the authorities with no alternative but 
to offer the command-in-chief once more to Martin Tromp. Full 
of resentment though he was at the bad treatment he had received, 
Tromp was too good a patriot to refuse. At the end of November 
the old admiral at the head of 100 warships put to sea for the 
purpose of convoying some 450 merchantmen through the Straits. 
Stormy weather compelled him to send the convoy with an escort 
into shelter, but he himself with sixty ships set out to seek the 
English fleet, which lay in the Downs, After some manoeuvring 
the two fleets met on December 10, off Dungeness. A stubborn fight 
took place, but this time it was some of the English ships that were 
defaulters. The result was the complete victory of the Dutch ; and 
Blake's fleet, severely damaged, retreated under cover of the night 
into Dover roads. Tromp was now for a time master of the Channel 
and commerce to and from the ports of Holland and Zeeland went 
on unimpeded, while many English prizes were captured. 



2i8 THE RISE OF JOHN DE WITT 

This state of things was however not to last long. Towards the end 
of February, 1653, Blake put to sea with nearly eighty ships, and on 
the 25th off Portland met Tromp at the head of a force nearly equal 
to his own in number. But the Dutch admiral was convoying more 
than 150 merchantmen and he had moreover been at sea without 
replenishment of stores ever since the fight at Dungeness, while the 
English had come straight from port. The fight, which on the part 
of the Dutch consisted of strong rear-guard actions, had lasted for 
two whole days, when Tromp found that his powder had run out 
and that on the third day more than half his fleet were unable to 
continue the struggle. But, inspiring his subordinates De Ruyter, 
Evertsen,and Floriszoonwith his own indomitable courage, Tromp 
succeeded by expert seamanship in holding off the enemy and 
conducting his convoy with small loss into safety. Four Dutch men- 
of-war were taken and five sunk ; the English only lost two ships. 

Meanwhile both nations had been getting sick of the war. The 
Dutch were suffering terribly from the serious interference with 
their commerce and carrying trade and from the destruction of the 
important fisheries industry, while the English on their side were 
shut out from the Baltic, where the King of Denmark, as the ally 
of the United Provinces, had closed the Sound, and from the 
Mediterranean, where Admiral van Galen, who lost his life in the 
fight, destroyed a British squadron off Leghorn (March 23). In both 
countries there was a peace party. Cromwell had always wished for 
a closer union with the United Provinces and was averse to war. 
In the Dutch republic the States party, especially in Holland the 
chief sufferer by the war, was anxious for a cessation of hostilities ; 
and it found its leader in the youthful John de Witt, who on the 
death of Adrian Pauw on February 21, 1653, had been appointed 
council-pensionary. Cromwell took pains to let the Estates of 
Holland know his favourable feelings towards them by sending 
over, in February, a private emissary. Colonel Dolman, a soldier 
who had served in the Netherland wars. On his part John de Witt 
succeeded in persuading the Estates of Holland to send secretly, 
without the knowledge of the States- General, letters to the English 
Council of State and the Parliament expressing their desire to open 
negotiations. Thus early did the new council-pensionary initiate 
a form of diplomacy in which he was to prove himself an adept. This 
first effort was not a success. The Parliament published the letter 



THE FIRST ENGLISH WAR 219 

with the title '' Humble Supplication of the States of Holland." The 
indignation of the Orange partisans was great, and they threatened 
internal disturbances throughout the country. Such however was 
the skill of De Witt that, on Parliament showing a willingness to 
resume the negotiations that had been broken oif in the previous 
summer, he induced the States- General by a bare majority (four 
provinces to three) to send a conciliatory letter, the date of which 
(April 30, 1653) coincided with Cromwell's forcible dissolution of 
the Rump Parliament and the assumption by him, with the support 
of the army, of dictatorial powers. The English Council of State, 
however, was well informed of the serious economical pressure of 
the war upon Holland ; and their insistence now on the full satisfaction 
of all the English demands made a continuation of hostilities in- 
evitable. 

Tromp, after successfully bringing in two large convoys of 
merchantmen, encountered (June 12), near the Gabbard,the English 
fleet under Monk and Deane. Each fleet numbered about 100 sail, 
but the Dutch ships were inferior in size, solidity and weight of 
metal. For two days the fight was obstinately and fiercely contested, 
but on Blake coming up with a reinforcement of thirteen fresh ships, 
Tromp was obliged to retreat, having lost twenty ships. He com- 
plained bitterly, as did his vice-admirals De Ruyter and De With, 
to the Board of Admiralty of the inferiority of the vessels of his fleet, 
as compared with those of the adversary. 

The English now instituted a blockade of the Dutch coast, 
which had the eflFect of reducing to desperate straits a land whose 
welfare and prosperity depended wholly on commerce. Amsterdam 
was ruined. In these circumstances direct negotiation was perforce 
attempted. Four envoys were sent representing the three maritime 
provinces. At first it seemed impossible that any common ground 
of agreement could be found. Cromwell was obsessed with the idea 
of a politico-religious union between the two republics, which 
would have meant the extinction of Dutch independence. The 
Council of State met the Dutch envoys with the proposal una gens, 
una respuhlica, which nothing but sheer conquest and dire necessity 
would ever induce the Dutch people to accept. Accordingly the war 
went on, though the envoys did not leave London, hoping still that 
some better terms might be off^ered. But in order to gain breathing 
space for the efforts of the negotiators, one thing was essential — 



220 THE RISE OF JOHN DE WITT 

the breaking of the blockade. The Admiralties made a supreme 
effort to refit and reinforce their fleet, but it lay in two portions ; 
eighty-five sail under Tromp in the Maas, thirty-one under De With 
in the Texel. Monk with about lOO ships lay between them to 
prevent their junction. On August 4 Tromp sailed out and, after 
a rearguard action off Katwijk, out-manoeuvred the English 
commander and joined De With. He now turned and with superior 
numbers attacked Monk off Scheveningen. The old hero fell 
mortally wounded at the very beginning of what proved to be an 
unequal fight. After a desperate struggle the Dutch retired with 
very heavy loss. Monk's fleet also was so crippled that he returned 
home to refit. The action in which Tromp fell thus achieved the 
main object for which it was fought, for it freed the Dutch coast 
from blockade. It was, moreover, the last important battle in the 
war. The States, though much perplexed to find a successor to 
Martin Tromp, were so far from being discouraged that great 
energy was shown in reorganising the fleet. Jacob van Wassenaer, 
lord of Ob dam, was appointed lieutenant-admiral of Holland, with 
De Ruyter and Evertsen under him as vice-admirals. De With 
retained his old command of a detached squadron, with which he 
safely convoyed a large fleet of East Indiamen round the north of 
Scotland into harbour. After this there were only desultory opera- 
tions on both sides and no naval engagement. 

Meanwhile negotiations had been slowly dragging on. The 
accession of Cromwell to supreme power in December, 1653, with 
the title of Lord Protector seemed to make the prospects of the 
negotiations brighter, for the new ruler of England had always 
professed himself an opponent of the war, which had shattered his 
fantastic dream of a union between the two republics. Many 
conferences took place, but the Protector's attitude and intentions 
were ambiguous and difficult to divine. The fear of an Orange 
restoration appears to have had a strange hold on his imagination 
and to have warped at this time the broad outlook of the statesman. 
At last Cromwell formulated his proposals in twenty-seven articles. 
The demands were those of the victor, and were severe. All the old 
disputes were to be settled in favour of England. An annual sum 
was to be paid for the right of fishing ; compensation to be made 
for "the massacre of Amboina" and the officials responsible for it 
punished; the number of warships in English waters was to be 



THE FIRST ENGLISH WAR 221 

limited ; the flag had to be struck when English ships were met and 
the right of search to be permitted. These demands, unpalatable 
as they were, might at least have furnished a basis of settlement, but 
there was one demand besides these which was impossible. Article 
12 stipulated that the Prince of Orange should not at any time hold 
any of the offices or dignities which had been held by his ancestors, 
or be appointed to any military command. De Witt, in whose hands 
were all the threads of the negotiations, was perfectly aware that 
it would be useless to present such proposals to the States- General. 
Not only would they indignantly reject them, but he had not the 
slightest hope of getting any single province, even Holland, to 
allow a foreign power to interfere with their internal aflFairs and to 
bid them to treat with harsh ingratitude the infant-heir of a family 
to which the Dutch people owed so deep a debt. There was 
nothing for it but to prepare for a vigorous resumption of the war. 
Strong efforts were therefore made at De Witt's instigation to 
increase the fleet and secure the active co-operation of Denmark and 
France, both friendly to the States. But Cromwell really wanted 
peace and showed himself ready to yield on certain minor points, 
but he continued to insist on the exclusion of the Prince of Orange. 
Not till the Dutch envoys had demanded their passports did the 
Protector give way so far as to say he would be content to have the 
exclusion guaranteed by a secret article. 

What followed forms one of the strangest chapters in the history 
of diplomacy. De Witt had all this time been keeping up, in complete 
secrecy, a private correspondence with the leading envoy, his 
confidant Van Beverningh. Through Van Beverningh he was able 
to reach the private ear of Cromwell, and to enter into clandestine 
negotiations with him. The council-pensionary knew well the 
hopelessness of any attempt to get the assent of the States- General 
to the proposed exclusion, even in a secret article. Van Beverningh 
was instructed to inform Cromwell of the state of public feeling 
on this point, with the result that the Protector gave the envoy to 
understand that he would be satisfied if the Estates of Holland alone 
would affirm a declaration that the Prince should never be appointed 
stadholder or captain-general. Whether this concession was offered 
by Cromwell proprio motu or whether it was in the first instance 
suggested to him by De Witt through Van Beverningh is unknown. 
In any case the council-pensionary, being convinced of the necessity 



222 THE RISE OF JOHN DE WITT 

of peace, resolved to secure it by playing a very deep and dangerous 
game. Not only must the whole affair be kept absolutely from the 
cognisance of the States-General, but also De Witt was fully aware 
that the assent of the Estates of Holland to the proposed exclusion 
article could only be obtained with the greatest difficulty. He was 
to prove himself a very past master in the art of diplomatic chicanery 
and intrigue. 

The council-pensionary first set to work to have the treaty, 
from which the exclusion article had been cut out, ratified rapidly 
by the States-General, before bringing the secret article to the 
knowledge of the Estates of Holland. The Estates adjourned for a 
recess on April 21, 1654. On the following day he presented the 
treaty to the States-General, and such was his persuasive skill that 
he accomplished the unprecedented feat of getting this dilatory body 
to accept the conditions of peace almost without discussion. On 
April 23 the treaty ratified and signed was sent back to London. 
Only one article aroused opposition (Art. 32), the so-called "tem- 
perament clause" ; but Cromwell had insisted upon it. By this article 
the States- General and the Provincial Estates separately undertook 
that every stadholder, captain-general or commander of military 
or naval forces should be required to take an oath to observe the 
treaty. Meanwhile De Witt had received a letter from Van Bever- 
ningh and his colleague Nieuwpoort addressed to the Estates of 
Holland (not at the moment in session) stating that Cromwell 
refused on his part to ratify the treaty until he received the Act of 
Exclusion^ from the Estates, who were until now wholly ignorant 
that any such proposal would be made to them. 

The cleverness and skill now shown by the council-pensionary 
were truly extraordinary. A summons was sent out to the Estates 
to meet on April 28 without any reason being assigned. The 
members on assembly were sworn to secrecy, and then the official 
letter from London was read to them. The news that Cromwell 
refused to sign the treaty until he received the assent of the 
Province of Holland to the Act of Exclusion came upon the Estates 
like a thunder-bolt. The sudden demand caused something like 
consternation, and the members asked to be allowed to consider the 
matter with their principals before taking so momentous a decision. 
Three days were granted but, as it was essential to prevent publicity, 

^ Acte van Seclusie. 



THE FIRST ENGLISH WAR 223 

it was settled that only the burgomasters should be consulted, 
again under oath of secrecy. At the meeting on May i another 
despatch from Van Beverningh was read in which the envoy stated 
that the demand of Cromwell — that the Act should be placed in his 
hands within two days after the ratification of the treaty — was 
peremptory and threatening. Unless he received the Act he would 
consider the treaty as not binding upon him. Using all his powers 
of advocacy, De Witt succeeded after an angry debate in securing a 
majority for the Act. Five towns however obstinately refused their 
assent, and claimed that it could not be passed without it. But 
De Witt had made up his mind to risk illegality, and overruled their 
protest. The Act was declared to have been passed and was on May 5 
sent to Van Beverningh and Nieuwpoort with instructions not to 
deliver it until circumstances compelled them to do so. The 
proclamation of peace followed amidst general rejoicing both in 
England and the Netherlands ; but for some five weeks the existence 
of the Act was unknown to the States- General, and during that 
period, as a fact, it remained in Van Beverningh's possession still 
undelivered. 

Early in June a bribe induced one of De Witt's clerks to betray 
the secret to Count William Frederick. The news soon spread, and 
loud was the outcry of the Orange partisans and of the two 
princesses, who at once addressed a remonstrance to the States- 
General. All the other provinces strongly protested against the 
action of the Estates of Holland and of the council-pensionary. 
De Witt attempted to defend himself and the Estates, by vague 
statements, avoiding the main issue, but insisting that nothing 
illegal had been done. His efforts were in vain. On June 6 the States- 
General passed a resolution that the envoys in England should be 
ordered to send back at once all the secret instructions they had 
received from Holland, and the Act of Exclusion. Meanwhile the 
Estates of Holland themselves, frightened at the clamour which had 
been aroused, began to show signs of defection. They went so far 
as to pass a vote of thanks to the envoys for not having delivered 
the Act to Cromwell. De Witt's position appeared hopeless. He 
extricated himself and outwitted his opponents by the sheer 
audacity and cleverness of the steps that he took. His efforts to 
prevent the resolution of the States- General from taking immediate 
effect proving unavailing, he put forward the suggestion that on 



224 THE RISE OF JOHN DE WITT 

account of its importance the despatch should be sent to the 
envoys in cipher. This was agreed to, and on June 7 the document 
was duly forwarded to London by the council-pensionary ; but he 
enclosed a letter from himself to Van Beverningh and Nieuwpoort 
informing them that the Estates of Holland assented to the request 
made by the States- General, and that they were to send back the 
secret correspondence and also the Act, if it were still undelivered. 
The result answered to his expectations. While the clerk was 
laboriously deciphering the despatch, the envoys read between the 
lines of De Witt's letter, and without a moment's delay went to 
Whitehall and placed the Act in Cromwell's hands. The States- 
General had thus no alternative between acceptance of the fait 
accompli and the risk of a renewal of the war. No further action was 
taken, and the Protector professed himself satisfied with a guarantee 
of such doubtful validity. 

It is impossible to withhold admiration from De Witt's marvellous 
diplomatic dexterity, and from the skill and courage with which he 
achieved his end in the face of obstacles and difficulties that seemed 
insurmountable ; but for the course of double-dealing and chicanery 
by which he triumphed, the only defence that can be offered is that 
the council-pensionary really believed that peace was an absolute 
necessity for his country, and that peace could only be maintained 
at the cost of the Act of Exclusion. Whether or no Cromwell would 
have renewed the war, had the Act been withdrawn, it is impossible 
to say. There is, however, every reason to believe that De Witt was 
prompted to take the risks he did by purely patriotic motives, and 
not through spite against the house of Orange. Be this as it may, 
the part that he now played was bitterly resented, not merely by the 
Orange partisans, but by popular opinion generally in the United 
Provinces, and it was never forgiven. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN DE WITT 1654-1665 
FROM THE PEACE OF WESTMINSTER TO THE OUT- 
BREAK OF THE SECOND ENGLISH WAR 

The position of John de Witt in July, 1654, was a difficult one. The 
conduct of the council-pensionary in the matter of the Act of 
Exclusion was openly attacked in the States- General. Had the 
leaders of the Orange party been united, the attack might have had 
serious consequences ; but notoriously the princess royal, the 
princess dowager and William Frederick were on bad terms, and 
De Witt, with his usual adroitness, knew well how to play off one 
against another. To meet the accusations of his assailants in the 
States- General he drew up however an elaborate defence of the 
action taken by the Estates of Holland and by himself. The 
document bore the title " Deduction of the Estates of Holland." It 
was laborious rather than convincing, and it did not convince op- 
ponents. Nevertheless, though resentment continued to smoulder, 
the fact that peace had been assured soon reconciled the majority 
to allow the doubtful means by which it had been obtained to be 
overlooked. The tact, the persuasiveness, the great administrative 
powers of the council-pensionary effected the rest ; and his influence 
from this time forward continued to grow, until he attained to such 
a control over every department of government, as not even 
Oldenbarneveldt had possessed in the height of his power. 

John de Witt was possibly not the equal of the famous Advocate 
in sheer capacity for great affairs, but he had practical abilities of 
the highest order as a financier and organiser, and he combined with 
these more solid qualifications a swiftness of courageous decision 
in moments of emergency which his almost infinite resourcefulness 
in extricating himself from difficult and perilous situations, enabled 
him to carry to a successful issue. His marriage in February, 1655, 
to Wendela Bicker, who belonged to one of the most important 
among the ruling burgher-families of Amsterdam, brought to him 

E.H. H. 15 



226 THE ADMINISTRATION OF 

enduring domestic happiness. It was likewise of no slight political 
value. Andries and Cornelis Bicker, who had headed the opposition 
to William II and had been declared by him in 1650 incapable of 
holding henceforth any municipal office, were her uncles ; while her 
maternal uncle, Cornelis de Graeff, was a man of weight and influence 
both in his native town and in the Provincial Estates. By this close 
relationship with such leading members of the regent-aristocracy 
of Amsterdam the council-pensionary became almost as secure of 
the support of the commercial capital in the north of Holland, as 
he was already of Dordrecht in the south. Two of his cousins, 
Slingelandt and Vivien, were in turn his successors, as pensionaries 
of Dordrecht, while for his predecessor in that post, Nicolas Ruysch, 
he obtained the extremely influential office of griffier or secretary 
to the States-General. Nor did he scruple to exercise his powers of 
patronage for other members of his family. His father, Jacob de 
Witt, was made a member of the Chamber of Finance ; his elder 
brother, Cornelis, Ruwaard of Putten. By these and other appoint- 
mxcnts of men who were his friends and supporters, to important 
positions diplomatic, military and naval, De Witt contrived to 
strengthen more and more his personal authority and influence. 
And yet in thus favouring his relatives and friends, let us not accuse 
De Witt of base motives or of venality. He firmly believed in his 
own ability to serve the State, and, without doubt, he was convinced 
that it was for the best interest of his country for him to create for 
himself, as far as was possible amidst the restrictions by which he 
was hemmed in on every side, a free field of diplomatic and adminis- 
trative action. No one, not even his bitterest enemies, ever charged 
John de Witt with personal corruption. Throughout his whole 
career he lived quietly and unostentatiously, as a simple citizen, on 
a very moderate income, and he died a poor man. 

One of the first cares of the council-pensionary after the peace 
with England was to deal with the internal troubles which were 
disturbing certain parts of the land, notably Groningen, Zeeland 
and Overyssel. In the last-named province a serious party struggle 
arose out of the appointment of a strong Orangist, named Haersolte, 
to the post of Drost or governor of Twente. The Estates were split 
up, the Orange partisans meeting at ZwoUe, the anti-Orange at 
Deventer. Both enlisted troops, but those of Zwolle were the 
stronger and laid siege to Deventer. The victorious Orangists then 



JOHN DE WITT, 1654-1665 227 

nominated William III as stadholder with William Frederick as 
his lieutenant. At last, after three years' strife, the parties called in 
De Witt and William Frederick as mediators. But De Witt was far 
too clever for the Friesland stadholder. It happened that the post 
of field-marshal had just fallen vacant by the death of Brederode. 
Both William Frederick and his cousin Joan Maurice aspired to the 
office. The council-pensionary induced his co-mediator, with the 
hope of becoming Brederode's successor, to yield on all points. 
Haersolte was deprived of office ; the prince's appointment as 
stadholder was suspended until his majority ; and therefore William 
Frederick could not act as his lieutenant. Thus peace was restored 
to Overyssel, but William Frederick was not appointed field- 
marshal. In the other provinces the tact and skill of De Witt were 
equally successful in allaying discord. He would not have been so 
successful had the Orange party not been hopelessly divided and 
had it possessed capable leaders. 

As an administrator and organiser the council-pensionary at 
once applied himself to two most important tasks, financial reform 
and naval reconstruction. The burden of debt upon the province of 
Holland, which had borne so large a part of the charges of the war, 
was crushing. The rate of interest had been reduced in 1640 from 
6^ to 5 per cent. But the cost of the English war, which was wholly 
a naval war, had caused the debt of Holland to mount to 153,000,000 
guilders, the interest on which was 7,000,000 guilders per annum. 
De Witt first took in hand a thorough overhauling of the public 
accounts, by means of which he was enabled to check unnecessary 
outlay and to eflFect a number of economies. Finding however that, 
despite his efforts to reduce expenditure, he could not avoid an 
annual deficit, the council-pensionary took the bold step of 
proposing a further reduction of interest from 5 to 4 per cent. He 
had some difficulty in persuading the investors in government 
funds to consent, but he overcame opposition by undertaking to 
form a sinking fund by which the entire debt should be paid oflF in 
41 years. Having thus placed the finances of the province on a sound 
basis, De Witt next brought a similar proposal before the States- 
General with the result that the interest on the Generality debt was 
likewise reduced to 4 per cent. 

The English war had conclusively proved to the Dutch their 
inferiority in the size and armament of their war- vessels, and of the 

15—2 



228 THE ADMINISTRATION OF 

need of a complete reorganisation of the fleet. De Witt lost no time 
in taking the necessary steps. The custom which had hitherto 
prevailed of converting merchantmen into ships of war at the out- 
break of hostilities was abandoned. Steps were taken to build 
steadily year by year a number of large, strongly-constructed, 
powerfully armed men-of-war, mounting 60, 70 and 80 guns. These 
vessels were specially adapted for passing in and out of the shallow 
waters and were built for strength rather than for speed. Again, 
the part taken in the war by the light, swift-sailing English frigates 
led to a large flotilla of these vessels being built, so useful for scouting 
purposes and for preying upon the enemy's commerce. The supply 
and training of seamen was also dealt with, and the whole system of 
pay and of prize-money revised and reorganised. It was a great and 
vitally necessary task, and subsequent events were to show how 
admirably it had been carried out. 

No one knew better than John de Witt that peace was the chief 
interest of the United Provinces, but his lot was cast in troubled 
times, and he was one of those prescient statesmen who perceive 
that meekness in diplomacy and ^villingness to submit to injury 
do not promote the cause of peace or further the true interests of 
any country. 

The conquests of France in the southern Netherlands caused 
great anxiety to the Dutch ; and the high-handed action of French 
pirates in searching and seizing Dutch merchantmen in the Mediter- 
ranean aroused much indignation. The States, acting on De Witt's 
advice, replied by sending a squadron underDe Ruyter to put a stop 
to these proceedings. The Dutch admiral took vigorous action and 
captured some French freebooters. The French government there- 
upon forbade Dutch vessels to enter French harbours. The Dutch 
replied by a similar embargo and threatened to blockade the French 
coast. This threat had the desired effect, and an accommodation was 
reached. The peace of the Pyrenees in 1659, by which the French 
retained a large part of their conquests in Flanders, Hainault and 
Namur, while the English acquired possession of Dunkirk, was 
disquieting. For the relations with England, despite the good- will 
of the Protector, were far from satisfactory^-. The trade interests of 
the two republics clashed at so many points that a resumption of 
hostilities was with difficulty prevented. More especially was this 
the case after the outbreak of war with Portugal in November, 1657. 



JOHN DE WITT, 1654-1665 229 

The Dutch accused the Portuguese government of active con- 
nivance with the successful revolt of the Brazilian colonists against 
Dutch rule. What was once Dutch Brazil was now claimed by the 
Lisbon government as a Portuguese possession, and De Witt 
demanded an indemnity. As this was not conceded, a squadron 
under Obdam, November, 1657, blockaded the Portuguese coast, 
while another under De Ruyter made many seizures of merchant 
vessels. Cromwell was- disposed to intervene, but his death on 
September 3, 1658, removed any fears of English action. Meanwhile 
the Dutch captured Ceylon and Macassar and practically cut off 
Portuguese intercourse with the East Indies. At last in August, 1661 , 
a treaty was signed by which the Dutch abandoned all territorial 
claims in Brazil, but were granted freedom of trade and an indemnity 
of 8,000,000 fl. to be paid in sixteen years, and, what was more 
valuable, they retained possession of their conquests in the East. 

The protracted dispute with Portugal was however of quite 
subordinate importance to the interest of the Dutch in the com- 
plications of the so-called Northern War. On the abdication of 
Christina in 1654, Charles X Gustavus had succeeded to the 
Swedish throne. The new king was fired with the ambition of 
following in the footsteps of Gustavus Adolphus, and of rendering 
Sweden supreme in the Baltic by the subjection of Poland and 
Denmark. Charles was a man of great force of character and warlike 
energy, and he lost no time in attempting to put his schemes of 
conquest into execution. Having secured the alliance of the Great 
Elector, anxious also to aggrandise himself in Polish Prussia, the 
Swedish king declared v/ar against Poland, and in the early summer 
of 1656 laid siege to Danzig. But the importance of the Baltic trade 
to Holland was very great and Danzig was the corn emporium of 
the Baltic. Under pressure therefore of the Amsterdam merchants 
the States-General despatched (July) a fleet of forty-two ships 
under Obdam van Wassenaer through the Sound, which raised 
the siege of Danzig and with Polish consent left a garrison in the 
town. Thus checked, the Swedish king at Elbing (September, 1 656) 
renewed amicable relations with the republic, and Danzig was 
declared a neutral port. At the same time a defensive alliance was 
concluded between the States and Denmark. It was obvious from 
this that the Dutch were hostile to Swedish pretensions and 
determined to resist them. De Witt was anxious to preserve peace, 



230 THE ADMINISTRATION OF 

but he had against him all the influence of Amsterdam, and that of 
the able diplomatist, Van Beuningen, who after being special envoy 
of the States at Stockholm had now been sent to Copenhagen. Van 
Beuningen held that, whatever the risks of intervention on the part 
of the States, the control of the Sound must not fall into the hands 
of Sweden. The emergency came sooner than was expected. 

Brandenburg having changed sides, the Swedes were expelled 
from Poland ; and Frederick III of Denmark, despite the advice of 
De Witt, seized the opportunity to declare war on Sweden. Although 
it was the depth of winter Charles Gustavus lost no time in attacking 
Denmark. He quickly drove the Danes from Schonen and Funen 
and invaded Seeland. Frederick was compelled at Roeskilde 
(February, 1658) to accept the terms of the conqueror. Denmark 
became virtually a Swedish dependency, and undertook to close 
the Sound to all foreign ships. Involved as the republic was in 
disputes at this time with both France and England, and engaged 
in war with Portugal, De Witt would have been content to maintain 
a watchful attitude in regard to Scandinavian matters and to strive 
by diplomacy to secure from Sweden a recognition of Dutch rights. 
But his hand was forced by Van Beuningen, who went so far as to 
urge the Danish king to rely on his defensive alliance with the 
republic and to break the treaty of Roeskilde. Charles Gustavus 
promptly invaded Denmark, drove the Danish fleet from the sea, 
placed strong garrisons at Elsinore and Kronborg, and laid siege 
to Copenhagen. Van Beuningen had proudly asserted that "the 
oaken keys of the Sound lay in the docks of Amsterdam," and his 
boast was no empty one. At the beginning of October a force of 
thirty-five vessels under Obdam carrying 4000 troops sailed for the 
Sound with orders to destroy the Swedish fleet, and to raise the 
siege of Copenhagen. On November 8 Obdam encountered the 
Swedes in the entrance to the Baltic. The Swedish admiral Wrangel 
had forty-five ships under his command, and the battle was obstinate 
and bloody. Obdam carried out his instructions. Only a remnant 
of the Swedish fleet found refuge in the harbour of Landskrona, 
but the Dutch also suffered severely. The two vice-admirals, Witte 
de With and Floriszoon, were killed, and Obdam himself narrowly 
escaped capture, but Copenhagen was freed from naval blockade 

Charles Gustavus however held military possession of a large 
part of Denmark, and in the spring began to press the attack on the 



JOHN DE WITT, 1 654-1 665 231 

capital from the land side. As both England and France showed a 
disposition to interfere in the conflict, the States- General now acted 
with unexpected vigour, recognising that this question to them was 
vital. An imposing force of seventy-five warships, carrying 12,000 
troops and mounting 3000 guns, was despatched in May, 1659, under 
De Ruyter to the Baltic. Negotiations for peace between the 
Scandinavian powers under the mediation of France, England and 
the United Provinces, were now set on foot and dragged on through 
the summer. But neither Charles Gustavus nor Frederick could be 
brought to agree to the terms proposed, and the former in the 
autumn again threatened Copenhagen. In these circumstances 
De Ruyter was ordered to expel the Swedes from Funen. On 
November 24 the town of Nyborg was taken by storm and the 
whole Swedish force compelled to surrender. De Ruyter was now 
supreme in the Baltic and closely blockaded the Swedish ports. 
The spirit of Charles Gustavus was broken by these disasters ; he 
died on February 20, 1660. Peace was now concluded at Oliva on 
conditions favourable to Sweden, but securing for the Dutch 
the free passage of the Sound. The policy of De Witt was at once 
firm and conciliatory. Without arousing the active opposition of 
England and France, he by strong-handed action at the decisive 
moment succeeded in maintaining that balance of power in the 
Baltic which was essential in the interest of Dutch trade. The 
republic under his skilful leadership undoubtedly gained during 
the northern wars fresh weight and consideration in the Councils 
of Europe. 

The peace of the Pyrenees, followed by the peace of Oliva and 
the settlement with Portugal, seemed to open out to the United 
Provinces a period of rest and recuperation, but probably no one 
knew better than the council- pensionary that outward appearances 
were deceptive. In the spring of 1660 a bloodless revolution had 
been accomplished in England, and Charles II was restored to the 
throne. The hostility of De Witt and of the States party to the 
house of Stuart had been marked. It happened that Charles was 
at Breda when he received the invitation recalling him to England. 
The position was a difficult one, but the council- pensionary at 
once saw, with his usual perspicacity, that there was but one course 
to pursue. Acting under his advice, every possible step was taken by 
the States- General and the Estates of Holland to propitiate the 



232 THE ADMINISTRATION OF 

prince, who from being a forlorn exile had suddenly become a 
powerful king. Immense sums were spent upon giving him a 
magnificent reception at the Hague ; and, when he set sail from 
Scheveningen, deputations from the States- General and the Estates 
of Holland attended in state his embarkation and lavish promises of 
friendship were exchanged. It was significant, however, that Charles 
handed to the council- pensionary a declaration commending to 
the care of their High Mightinesses " the Princess my sister and the 
Prince of Orange my nephew, persons who are extremely dear to 
me." He had previously expressed the same wish to De Witt 
privately ; and compliance with it, i.e. the annulling of the Act of 
Exclusion, was inevitable. But all the actors in this comedy were 
playing a part. Charles was not deceived by all this subservience; 
and, continuing to entertain a bitter grudge against De Witt and 
his party, only waited his time to repay their enmity in kind. 
De Witt on his side, though in his anxiety to conciliate the new 
royalist government he consented to deliver up three regicides 
who were refugees in Holland (an act justly blamed), refused to 
restore the Prince of Orange to any of the ancient dignities and 
offices of his forefathers. Acting however on his advice, the Estates 
of Holland passed a unanimous resolution declaring William a ward 
of the Estates and voting a sum of money for his maintenance and 
education. 

Very shortly after this momentous change in the government of 
England, Cardinal Mazarin died (March, 1661) ; and the youthful 
Louis XIV took the reins of power into his own hands. Outwardly 
all seemed well in the relations between France and the republic, 
and in point of fact an oflFensive and defensive alliance for twenty- 
five years was concluded between them on April 27, 1662. Later in 
the same year Count D'Estrades, formerly ambassador in the time of 
Frederick Henry, resumed his old post. The relations between him 
and De Witt were personally of the friendliest character, but the 
conciliatory attitude of D'Estrades did not deceive the far-sighted 
council-pensionary, who was seriously disquieted as to the political 
aims of France in the southern Netherlands. 

By the treaty of the Pyrenees, 1659, the French had already 
acquired a large slice of territory in Flanders and Artois. They had 
since obtained Dunkirk by purchase from Charles II. Moreover 
Louis XIV had married the eldest daughter of Philip IV, whose 



JOHN DE WITT, 1654-1665 233 

only son was a weakly boy. It is true that Maria Theresa, on her 
marriage, had renounced all claims to the Spanish succession. But 
a large dowry had been settled upon her, and by the treaty the 
renunciation was contingent upon its payment. The dowry had not 
been paid nor was there any prospect of the Spanish treasury being 
able to find the money. Besides it was no secret that Louis claimed 
the succession to Brabant for his wife and certain other portions of 
the Netherlands under what was called the Law of Devolution. By 
this law the female child of a first wife was the heir in preference 
to the male child of a later marriage. The Dutch dreaded the 
approach of the French military power to their frontiers, and yet 
the decrepitude of Spain seemed to render it inevitable. There 
appeared to De Witt to be only two solutions of the difficulty. 
Either what was styled " the cantonment" of the southern Nether- 
lands, i,e. their being formed into a self-governing republic under 
Dutch protection guaranteed by a French alliance, or the division 
of theBelgic provinces between the two powers. The latter proposal, 
however, had two great disadvantages : in the first place it gave to 
France and the Republic the undesirable common frontier; in the 
second place Amsterdam was resolved that Antwerp should not be 
erected into a dangerous rival. The last objection proved insuperable ; 
and, although De Witt had many confidential discussions with 
D'Estrades, in which the French envoy was careful not to commit 
himself to any disclosure of the real intentions of his government, 
no settlement of any kind had been arrived at, when the threatening 
state of relations with England threw all other questions into the 
background. 

The accession of Charles II placed upon the throne of England 
a man who had no goodwill to Holland and still less to the council- 
pensionary, and who, like all the Stewart kings, had a keen interest 
in naval and maritime matters. The Navigation Act, far from being 
repealed, was vigorously enforced, as were the English claims to the 
sovereignty of the narrow seas. The grievances of the English 
East India Company against its Dutch rival with regard to the 
seizure of certain ships and especially as to the possession of a 
small island named Poeloe-Rum in the Moluccas led to a growing 
feeling of bitterness and hostility. A special embassy, headed by 
De Witt's cousin, Beverweert, was sent to London in the autumn 
of 1660 to try to bring about a friendly understanding, but was 



234 THE ADMINISTRATION OF 

fruitless. At the same time George Downing, a skilful intriguer and 
adventurer, who after serving Cromwell had succeeded in gaining 
the confidence of the royal government, had been sent as ambassador 
to the Hague, where he worked underhand to exacerbate the disputes 
and to prevent a settlement of the differences between the two 
peoples. The position and treatment of the Prince of Orange had 
likewise been a source of difficulty and even of danger to the 
supremacy of the States party. There arose a general movement 
among the provinces, headed by Gelderland and Zeeland, to 
nominate William captain- and admiral- general of the Union 
and stadholder. The lack of leadership in the Orangist party, and 
the hostility between the two princesses, rendered, however, any 
concentrated action impossible. De Witt, with his usual adroitness, 
gained the ear of the princess royal, who accepted the proposal 
that the Estates of Holland should undertake the education of the 
prince, and even consented that De Witt himself and his wife's 
uncle, De Graef, should superintend the prince's studies. This 
arranged, Mary, for the first time since her marriage, paid a visit 
to her native land, being desirous to consult her brother on 
•various subjects. Unfortunately she died of small-pox in January, 
1661, having nominated Charles as her son's guardian. This 
nomination did not tend to smooth matters between the two 
countries. 

There was a powerful war party in England, supported by the 
Duke of York. It was at his instigation that a strong-handed act 
took place which aroused intense indignation in Holland. A 
company called "The Royal African Company" had been formed 
in which the duke had a large interest. A fleet fitted out by this com- 
pany under the command of Admiral Holmes seized, in February, 
1664, a portion of the coast of Guinea on which the Dutch had 
settlements. Strong protests meeting with nothing but evasive 
replies, in all secrecy a squadron was got ready to sail under De 
Ruyter, nominally to the Mediterranean. Dilatory negotiations 
were in the meantime being conducted by Beverweert in London, 
and by Downing at the Hague in regard to this and other grievances, 
but without any approach to a settlement. Downing in fact was 
surreptitiously doing his best not to reconcile, but to aggravate 
differences. Matters were brought to a head by the news that an 
English fleet had crossed the Atlantic and had taken possession of 



JOHN DE WITT, 1654-1665 235 

the Dutch colony of New Netherland (September), and that Holmes 
had made himself master of Cabo Corso on the West African coast, 
and was threatening further conquests. This was too much. De 
Ruyter received orders to proceed to Guinea, where he speedily 
drove out the English intruders and reoccupied the lost settlements. 
During the winter both powers prepared for a struggle for maritime 
supremacy which had become inevitable ;and at last war was declared 
by England (March 4, 1665). 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE LAST YEARS OF DE WITT^S ADMINISTRATION, 

1665-1672. THE SECOND ENGLISH WAR. THE TRIPLE 

ALLIANCE. THE FRENCH INVASION 

The declaration of war in March, 1665, found the Dutch navy, 
thanks to the prescience and personal care of the council- 
pensionary, far better prepared for a struggle with the superior 
resources of its English rival than was the case in 1654. John de Witt, 
aided by his brother Cornelis, had supplied the lack of an admiral- 
general by urging the various Admiralty Boards to push on the 
building of vessels in size, construction and armaments able to 
contend on equal terms with the English men-of-war. He had, 
moreover, with his usual industry taken great pains to study the 
details of admiralty-administration and naval science ; and now, in 
company with the Commissioners of the States-General, he visited 
all the ports and dockyards and saw that every available ship was 
got ready for immediate service, provided with seasoned crews, 
and with ample stores and equipment. The English on their side 
were equally ready for the encounter. After the death of Cromwell 
the fleet had been neglected, but during the five years that had 
passed since the Restoration steps had been taken to bring it to an 
even greater strength and efficiency than before. Whatever may 
have been the faults of the Stewart kings, neglect of the navy could 
not be laid to their charge. One of the first steps of Charles II was 
to appoint his brother James, Duke of York, to the post of Lord- 
High-Admiral ; and James was unremitting in his attention to his 
duties, and a most capable naval administrator and leader, while 
Charles himself never ceased during his reign to take a keen interest 
in naval matters. In his case, as previously in the case of his father, 
it was lack of the necessary financial means that alone prevented 
him from creating an English fleet that would be capable of 
asserting that "sovereignty in the narrow seas," which was the 
traditional claim of the English monarchy. 



DE WITT'S ADMINISTRATION, 1 665-1 672 237 

The English were ready before the Dutch, who were hampered 
in their preparations by having five distinct Boards of Admiralty. 
The Duke of York put to sea with a fleet of 100 ships at the end 
of April and , cruising off the coast of Holland , cut off the main Dutch 
fleet in the Texel from the Zeeland contingent. It was unfortunate 
for Holland that Michael Adriansz de Ruyter, one of the greatest 
of seamen, was at this time still in the Mediterranean Obdam, 
to whom the chief command was given, waited until a storm drove 
the enemy to their harbours. He then united all the Dutch squadrons 
and crossing to Southwold Bay found the English fleet ready for 
battle. After some manoeuvring the action was joined on June 13, 
and after a bloody fight ended most disastrously for the Dutch. 
The flag-ships in the course of the struggle became closely engaged, 
with the result that Obdam's vessel suddenly blew up, while that 
of the English admiral was seriously damaged and he himself 
wounded. The Dutch line had already been broken, and the fate 
of their commander decided the issue. The Dutch in great confusion 
sought the shelter of their shoals, but their habit of firing at the 
masts and rigging had so crippled their opponents that a vigorous 
pursuit was impossible. Nevertheless the English had gained at the 
first encounter a decided victory. Sixteen Dutch ships were sunk 
or destroyed, nine captured, and at least 2000 men were killed, 
including three admirals, and as many more taken prisoners. The 
English had but one vessel sunk, and their casualties did not amount 
to more than a third of the Dutch losses. The consternation and 
anger in Holland was great. Jan Evertsen, the second-in-command, 
and a number of the captains were tried by court-martial ; and the 
reorganisation of the fleet was entrusted to Cornelis Tromp, who, 
encouraged and aided by the council-pensionary, set himself with 
great energy to the task. 

The English meanwhile were masters of the sea, though 
administrative shortcomings, defects of victualling and shortage of 
men prevented them from taking full advantage of their success. 
Early in August, however, a fleet under the Earl of Sandwich 
attempted to capture a number of Dutch East Indiamen, who had 
sailed round the north of Scotland. The East Indiamen took refuge 
in the neutral port of Bergen. Here Sandwich ventured to attack 
them but was driven off by the forts. While he was thus engaged 
in the north the Channel was left free ; and De Ruyter with his 



238 THE LAST YEARS OF 

squadron seized the opportunity to return to home-waters without 
opposition. His arrival was of the greatest value to the Dutch, and 
he was with universal approval appointed to succeed Obdam as 
lieutenant-admiral of Holland, and was given the supreme 
command on the sea. Tromp, angry at being superseded, was with 
difficulty induced to serve under the new chief, but he had to yield 
to the force of public opinion. De Ruyter at once gave proof of his 
skill by bringing back safely the East Indiamen from Bergen, 
though a severe storm caused some losses, both to the fleet and the 
convoy. The damage was however by the energy of De Witt and the 
admiral quickly repaired ; and De Ruyter again sailed out at the 
beginning of October to seek the English fleet. He cruised in the 
Channel and off the mouth of the Thames, but no enemy vessels 
were to be seen ; and at the end of the month fresh storms brought 
the naval campaign of 1665 to a close, on the whole to the advantage 
of the English. 

Nor were the misfortunes of the Dutch confined to maritime 
warfare. Between England and Holland indeed the war was entirely 
a sea aff"air, neither of them possessing an army strong enough to 
land on the enemy's coast with any hope of success ; but the United 
Provinces were particularly vulnerable on their eastern frontier, 
and Charles H concluded an alliance with the Bishop of Miinster, 
who had a grievance against the States on account of a disputed 
border-territory, the lordship of Borkelo. Subsidised by England, 
the bishop accordingly at the head of 18,000 men (September, 1665) 
overran a considerable part of Drente and Overyssel and laid it 
waste. There was at first no organised force to oppose him. It had 
been the policy of Holland to cut down the army, and the other 
provinces were not unwilling to follow her example. No field- 
marshal had been appointed to succeed Brederode ; there was no 
army of the Union under a captain-general, but seven small 
provincial armies without a military head. Some thousands of fresh 
troops were now raised and munitions of war collected, but to whom 
should the chief command be given ? William Frederick was dead 
(October 31, 1664) and had been succeeded by his youthful son, 
Henry Casimir, in the Stadholderate of Friesland. Joan Maurice of 
Nassau had withdrawn from the Netherlands and was Governor 
of Cleves in the service of Brandenburg. He was however persuaded 
to place himself at the head of the army, though complaining bitterly 



DE WITT'S ADMINISTRATION, 1665-1672 239 

of the inadequacy of the forces placed at his disposal. De Witt, 
however, had not been idle. He secured the assistance of Brunswick- 
Liineburg, and an army of 12,000 B runs wickers under the command 
of George Frederick von Waldeck attacked Miinster ; while a force 
of 6000 French likewise, under the terms of the treaty of 1662, 
advanced to the help of the Dutch. Threatened also by Brandenburg, 
the bishop was compelled to withdraw his troops for home defence 
and in April, 1666, was glad to conclude peace with the States. 

French naval co-operation against England was also promised ;and 
war was actually declared by Louis XIV in the early spring of 1666. 
The real cause of this strong action was due to other motives than 
enmity to England. The death of Philip IV of Spain in September, 
1665, had brought nearer the prospect of there being no heir-male 
to the vast Spanish monarchy. The French Queen, Maria Theresa, 
was the eldest child of Philip ; and, though on her marriage she had 
renounced her claim to the Spanish throne, it was well known that 
Louis intended to insist upon her rights, particularly in regard to 
the Spanish Netherlands. He was afraid that the States, always 
suspicious of his ambitious projects, might be tempted to come to 
terms with England on the basis of a defensive alliance against 
French aggression in Flanders and Brabant, for both powers were 
averse to seeing Antwerp in French hands. To avert this danger 
Louis determined to take part in the war on the side of the Dutch. 
The move however was diplomatic rather than serious, for the 
French admiral, de Beaufort, never sailed into the North Sea or 
effected a junction with the Dutch fleet. Nevertheless, as will be 
seen, his presence in the Atlantic exercised an important effect 
upon the naval campaign of 1666. 

The English fleet was not ready until the beginning of June. The 
ravages of the plague and financial difficulties had caused delay; 
and the fleet only numbered about eighty sail, including a squadron 
which had been recalled from the Mediterranean. The " Generals- 
at- Sea," as they were called, were Monk and Rupert. They began 
by committing the great blunder of dividing their force. Rupert 
was detached with twenty ships to keep watch over de Beaufort, a 
diversion which had serious consequences for the English. The 
Dutch fleet, consisting of seventy-two men-of-war with twelve 
frigates, was the most powerful that the Admiralties had ever sent 
to sea, not in numbers but in the quality of the ships. De Witt 



240 THE LAST YEARS OF 

himself had supervised the preparations and had seen that the 
equipment was complete in every respect. De Ruyter was in 
supreme command and led the van, Cornelis Evertsen the centre, 
Cornelis Tromp the rear. On June 1 1 the English fleet under Monk 
was sighted between the North Foreland and Dunkirk, and the 
famous Four Days' Battle was begun. The English had only fifty- 
four ships, but having the weather gauge Monk attacked Tromp 's 
squadron with his whole force ; nor was it till later in the day that 
De Ruyter and Evertsen were able to come to the relief of their 
colleague. Night put an end to an indecisive contest, in which both 
sides lost heavily. The next day Monk renewed the attack, at first 
with some success ; but, De Ruyter having received a reinforcement 
of sixteen ships, the weight of numbers told and Monk was forced 
to retreat. On the third morning De Ruyter pursued his advantage, 
but the English admiral conducted his retirement in a most masterly 
manner, his rear squadron covering the main body and fighting 
stubbornly. Several ships, however, including the flag-ship of Vice- 
Admiral Ayscue, had to be abandoned and were either destroyed or 
captured by the Dutch. At the end of the day Monk had only 
twenty-eight ships left fit for service. Very opportunely he was now 
rejoined by Rupert's squadron and other reinforcements ; and on 
the fourth morning the two fleets confronted one another in almost 
equal numbers, each having some sixty vessels. Once more 
therefore the desperate struggle was resumed and with initial 
advantage to the English. Rupert forced his way through the Dutch 
fleet, which was for awhile divided. But the English habit of firing 
at the hulls, though it did most damage, was not so effective as the 
Dutch system of aiming at the masts and rigging in crippling the 
freedom of tacking and manoeuvring ; and Monk and Rupert were 
unable to prevent De Ruyter from re-uniting his whole force, and 
bearing down with it upon the enemy. The English were forced 
to retreat again, leaving several of their "lamed" vessels behind. 
They lost in all ten ships besides fireships, something like 3000 
killed and wounded and 2500 prisoners. Vice- Admiral Berkeley 
was killed. Vice- Admiral Ayscue taken prisoner. Nor were the 
Dutch much better off. Four or five of their ships were sunk, a 
number severely damaged, and their casualty list was probably as 
large as that of their foes. Nevertheless the victory was un- 
doubtedly theirs; and the fleet on its return was greeted with 



DE WITT'S ADMINISTRATION, 1665-1672 241 

public rejoicings in Holland and Zeeland. The triumph was of 
short duration. 

By vigorous efforts on both sides the damaged fleets were rapidly 
repaired. De Ruyter was the first to put to sea (July 9) with some 
ninety ships ; three weeks later Monk and Rupert left the Thames 
with an equal force. The encounter took place on August 4. It ended 
in a decisive English victory after some fierce and obstinate fighting. 
The Dutch van, after losing its two admirals, Evertsen and De Vries, 
gave way. Monk and Rupert then attacked with a superior force 
the centre under De Ruyter himself, who to save his fleet from 
destruction was compelled to take refuge behind the Dutch shoals . 
Meanwhile the squadron under Tromp, driving before it the rear 
squadron of the English, had become separated and unable to come 
to De Ruyter 's assistance. For this abandonment he was bitterly 
reproached by De Ruyter and accused of desertion. The quarrel 
necessitated Tromp 's being deprived of his conmiand, as the States- 
General could not afford to lose the services of the admiral-in- 
chief. 

For a time the English were now masters of the narrow seas, and, 
cruising along the Dutch coast, destroyed a great number of Dutch 
merchantmen, made some rich prizes and even landed on the island 
of Terschelling, which was pillaged. Lack of supplies at length 
compelled them to withdraw for the purpose of revictualling. On 
this De Ruyter, accompanied by Cornells de Witt as special 
commissioner, sailed out in the hopes of effecting a junction with 
De Beaufort. Rupert also put to sea again, but storms prevented a 
meeting between the fleets and sickness also seriously interfered 
with their efficiency. De Ruyter himself fell ill ; and, though John 
de Witt was himself with the fleet, no further operations were 
attempted. Both sides had become weary and exhausted and anxious 
for peace. 

To De Witt the war had been from the outset distasteful; and 
he had been much disturbed by the constant intrigues of the 
Orangist party to undermine his position. He was aware that in 
this hour of the country's need the eyes of a considerable part of 
the people, even in Holland, were more and more directed to the 
young prince. There was a magic in his name, which invested the 
untried boy with the reflected glory of his ancestor's great deeds. 
The council-pensionary, a past-master in the arts of expediency, 

E. H.H. 16 



242 THE LAST YEARS OF 

was driven to avert the danger which threatened the supremacy of 
the States party, by proposing to the Princess Amalia that the 
province of Holland should not only charge themselves with 
William's education, but should adopt him as "a Child of State." 
It was a short-sighted device for, as the princess shrewdly saw, this 
exceptional position assigned to her grandson must ensure, when 
he grew to man's estate, the reversion of his ancestral dignities. 
She willingly assented; and in April, 1666, the Estates of Holland 
appointed a Commission, of which John de Witt was himself the 
head, which was entrusted with the religious and political in- 
struction of the prince. A few months later De Witt was to discover 
that Orangist intrigues were being still clandestinely carried on. 
An officer of French extraction, the lord of Buat, though an Orange 
partisan, had been employed by the pensionary to make tentative 
proposals of peace to the English court through Lord Arlington. 
In August a packet of intercepted letters showed that Buat had 
played him false and was seeking to compass his overthrow. Buat 
was brought to trial, condemned to death, and executed on 
October 11. 

This strong action by the council-pensionary did not prevent, 
however, the preliminaries of a peaceful settlement being discussed 
both at the Hague and in London during the winter months, with 
the result that a conference of delegates representing Great Britain, 
the United Provinces and France, met at Breda in May, 1667, to 
discuss the terms of peace. But the negotiations did not progress. 
The English envoys raised afresh all the old questions, while the 
Dutch were not ready to concede anything unless the Navigation 
Act was largely modified. In these circumstances De Witt deter- 
mined by bold action to try to expedite the negotiations in a sense 
favourable to Holland. He knew that the English were unprepared. 
Charles II, in opposition to the advice of Rupert, Monk and the 
Duke of York, had refused to spend money in preparation for a 
campaign at sea, which he felt confident would never take place. 
The ravages of the plague and of the Great Fire of London had 
made the year 1666 one of the darkest in English history and had 
caused the heavy financial drain and losses of the war to be more 
severely felt. There was widespread discontent in the country ; and 
the king in sore financial distress was immovable in his resolve 
that no steps should be taken for refitting the fleet. The ships 



DE WITT'S ADMINISTRATION, 1665-1672 243 

remained laid up in port, although the Dutch despatched in April 
a squadron to the Firth of Forth and dominated the Channel. 

In deep secrecy De Witt now made preparations for the despatch 
of a great fleet with orders to sail up the estuary of the Thames and 
attack the English ships in harbour. De Ruyter, accompanied by 
Comelis de Witt, left the Texel on June 14, at the head of a fleet 
numbering more than eighty vessels. A squadron under Admiral 
Van Ghent sailed up the Thames on June 19, followed by the main 
body. Sheerness was captured, and on the 22nd De Ruj^er deter- 
mined to force his way up the Medway. The river had been blocked 
by drawing up a line of ships behind a heavy chain. The Dutch 
fire-ships broke through the chain and burnt the vessels, and then 
proceeding upwards burnt, scuttled or captured some sixteen 
vessels, among the latter the flag-ship. Royal Charles. The sound 
of the Dutch guns was heard in London and for a time panic 
reigned. But the narrowness of the river and the prompt measures 
that were taken to call out the militia and man the forts prevented 
any further success. The Dutch fleet withdrew to the Nore and, 
beyond blocking the mouth of the river, were able to effect no 
further damage. The blow to English prestige was however 
irreparable, and the people felt deeply humiliated that short- 
sightedness and lack of preparation on the part of the government 
should have exposed them to an insult galling to the national pride 
One of its consequences, as had been anticipated by De Witt, was 
a more conciliatory attitude on the part of the English envoys at 
Breda. Peace was concluded on July 26, on terms more favourable 
than the Dutch could have expected. The Navigation Act was 
modified, various commercial advantages were conceded and 
Poeloe-Rum was retained. On the other hand, the custom of the 
striking of the flag remained unchanged. It was agreed that the 
English colony of Surinam, which had been captured in March, 
1667, by a Zeeland squadron should be kept in exchange for New 
York, an exchange advantageous to both parties. 

By the treaty of Breda the Dutch republic attained the summit 
of its greatness, and the supremacy of De Witt appeared to be not 
only secure but unassailable. Yet events were preparing which were 
destined to undermine the prosperity of Holland and the position 
of the statesman to whom in so large a measure that prosperity was 
due. France under the absolute rule of Louis XIV had become by 

16—2 



244 THE LAST YEARS OF 

far the most powerful State in Europe, and the king was bent upon 
ambitious and aggressive projects. It has already been explained that 
after the death of Philip IV of Spain he claimed for his queen, Maria 
Theresa, the succession, by the so-called "law of devolution," to 
a large part of the southern Netherlands. He now determined that 
the hour had come for enforcing his claim. In May, 1667, before 
the treaty of Breda had been signed, a French army of 50,000 men 
crossed the Belgic frontier. Castel-Rodrigo, the Spanish governor, 
had no force at his disposal for resisting so formidable an invasion ; 
fortress after fortress fell into French hands ; and Flanders, Brabant 
and Hainault were speedily overrun. This rapid advance towards 
their borders caused no small consternation in Holland, and De 
Witt's efforts to reach an understanding with King Louis proved 
unavailing. The States were not in a position to attempt an armed 
intervention, and the once formidable Spanish power was now feeble 
and decrepit. The only hope lay in the formation of a coalition. 
De Witt therefore turned to England and Sweden for help. 

The anti-French party in Sweden was then predominant; and 
Dohna, the Swedish ambassador at the Hague, was ordered to go 
to London, there to further the efforts of the newly appointed Dutch 
envoy, John Meerman, for the formation of a coalition to check 
French aggrandisement. They had difficulties to overcome. The 
English were sore at the results of the peace of Breda. Charles 
disliked the Dutch and was personally indebted to Louis XIV for 
many favours. But the feeling in England was strongly averse to 
French aggression towards Antwerp. The fall of Clarendon from 
power at this time and the accession of Arlington, who was son- 
in-law to Beverweert, turned the scale in favour of the proposals 
of De Witt ; and Charles found himself obliged to yield. Sir William 
Temple, whose residence as English minister at Brussels had 
convinced him of the gravity of the French menace, was ordered 
to go to the Hague to confer personally with the council-pensionary 
and then to proceed to London. His mission was most promptly and 
skilfully carried out. His persuasiveness overcame all obstacles. 
After a brief stay in London he returned to the Hague, January 17, 
1668. Even the proverbial slowness of the complicated machinery 
of the Dutch government did not hinder him from carrying out 
his mission with almost miraculous rapidity. Having first secured 
the full support of De Witt to his proposals, he next, with the aid 



DE WITT'S ADMINISTRATION, 1665-1672 245 

of the council-pensionary, pressed the urgency of the case upon 
the States- General with such convincing arguments that the treaty 
between England and the United Provinces was signed on January 23 . 
Three days afterwards Dohna was able to announce the adhesion 
of the Swedish government ; and on January 26, the Triple Alliance 
was an accomplished fact. It was essentially a defensive alliance, 
and its main object was to offer mediation between France and 
Spain in order to moderate the French claims and to back up their 
mediation, if necessity should arise, by joint action. As a preliminary 
precaution, a strong force was promptly placed under the command 
of Joan Maurice of Nassau, and a fleet of forty-eight ships was 
fitted out. 

These steps had their effect. Louis, suddenly confronted by this 
formidable coalition, preferred to accept mediation, though it 
involved his waiving a portion of his pretensions. Knowing well 
that the alliance was a very unstable one, for the consent of Charles 
was given under duress and the aims of Sweden were mercenary, 
he foresaw that by biding his time, he could have ample revenge 
later upon the republic of traders who had ventured to thwart him. 
At a meeting at St Germain-en- Laye between the French Foreign 
Minister, Lionne, and the Dutch and English ambassadors, Van 
Beuningen and Trevor, preliminaries were settled on April 1 5 . These 
were confirmed by a conference of representatives of all the interested 
States at Aix-la-Chapelle (May 2), in which Temple took an active 
part. Louis gave up Franche-Comte, which he had conquered, but 
retained Mons, Courtrai, Tournai, Lille, Charleroi and other 
frontier towns. This treaty, following on that of Breda, was the 
crowning triumph of De Witt's administration, for it had given to 
the Dutch Republic a decisive voice in the Councils of the Great 
Powers of Europe. 

But, though he had proved himself so successful in the fields of 
diplomacy and statesmanship, the position of the council-pen- 
sionary had, during the course of the English war, become distinctly 
weaker. De Witt's authoritative ways, his practical monopoly of 
power, and his bestowal of so many posts upon his relatives and 
friends, aroused considerable jealousy and irritation. Cabals began 
to be formed against him and old supporters to fall away. He lost 
the help of Van Beverningh, who resigned the office of Treasurer- 
General, and he managed to estrange Van Beuningen, who had 



246 THE LAST YEARS OF 

much influence in Amsterdam. The Bickers and De Graeff"s were 
no longer supreme in that city, where a new party under the 
leadership of Gillis Valckenier had acceded to power. This party, 
with which Van Beuningen now associated himself, was at present 
rather anti-De Witt than pro-Orange. Valckenier and Beuningen 
became in succession burgomasters ; and De Witt's friend, Pieter 
de Groot, had to resign the office of pensionary. In the Estates of 
Holland, therefore, De Witt had to face opposition, one of the leaders 
being the able Pensionary of Haarlem, Caspar Fagel. And all this 
time he had ever before his eyes the fact that the Prince of Orange 
could not much longer remain " the Child of State" ; and that, when 
he passed out of the tutelage of the Estates of Holland, his future 
position would have to be settled. De Witt had himself devoted 
much personal care to William's instruction ; and the prince had 
submitted patiently and apparently with contentment to the 
restrictions with which he was surrounded. Physically weakly, his 
health was at all times delicate, but his intelligence was remarkable 
and his will-power extraordinary. Cold and impenetrable in manner 
and expression, unbending in his haughty aloofness, he knew how 
with perfect courtesy to keep his own counsel and to refrain from 
giving utterance to an unguarded word. But behind this chilling 
and sphinx-like exterior was a mind of singular precocity, already 
filled with deep-laid schemes and plans for the future, confident 
that his opportunity would come, and preparing when the hour 
struck to seize it. One can well imagine how anxiously in their many 
personal interviews the council-pensionary must have tried to read 
what was passing in his pupil's inmost thoughts, only to be bafiied. 
So early as August, 1667, steps had been taken by the Estates of 
Holland to forestall the danger that threatened. On the proposal 
of Van Beuningen and Valckenier, who had not yet detached 
themselves from the States party, an edict was passed to which, 
somewhat infelicitously,the name of the "Eternal Edict "was given. 
It abolished in Holland the office of stadholder for ever and 
affirmed the right of the town-corporations (vroedschappen) to elect 
their own magistrates. It was further resolved to invite the other 
provinces to declare that no stadholder could hold either the 
captain- or admiral-generalship of the Union. This resolution 
was styled the ''Concept of Harmony." Deputations were sent to 
urge the acceptation of the Concept ; and De Witt himself used 



DE WITT'S ADMINISTRATION, 1665-1672 247 

his utmost power of persuasion to bring about a general agreement. 
He was successful in Utrecht, Gelderland and Overyssel. But 
Zeeland,Friesland and Groningen, where theOrangists were strong, 
refused to give their assent ; and the approval of the States- General 
was only carried by a bare majority. De Witt himself doubtless 
knew that the erection of this paper barrier against the inherited 
influence of one bearing the honoured title of Prince of Orange was 
of little real value. It is reported that Vivien, the Pensionary of 
Dordrecht, De Witt's cousin, stuck his pen-knife into a copy of 
the Eternal Edict as it lay on the table before him, and in reply to 
a remonstrance said: *' I was only trying what steel can do against 
parchment." 

The second period of five years during which De Witt had held 
the post of council-pensionary was now drawing to an end. For a 
decade he had wielded a power which had given to him almost 
supreme authority in the republic, especially in the control of 
foreign affairs. But all the time he had lived the life of a simple 
burgher, plainly dressed, occupying the same modest dwelling- 
house, keeping only a single manservant. He was devotedly attached 
to his wife and children, and loved to spend the hours he could spare 
from public affairs in the domestic circle. The death of Wendela on 
July I, 1668, was a great blow to him and damped the satisfaction 
which must have filled him at the manner in which he was re- 
elected at the end of that month to enter upon his third period of 
office. In recognition of his great services his salary of 6000 
guilders was doubled, and a gratuity of 45,000 guilders was voted 
to him, to which the nobles added a further sum of 15,000 guilders. 
De Witt again obtained an Act of Indemnity from the Estates of 
Holland and likewise the promise of a judicial post on his retire- 
ment. 

The Prince of Orange had received the announcement of the 
passing of the Eternal Edict without showing the slightest emotion, 
or making any protest. He now, two months after the re-election 
of the council-pensionary, took the first step towards self-assertion. 
Under cover of a visit to his ancestral town of Breda, William made 
his way to Middelburg, where the Estates of Zeeland were assembled. 
Being now eighteen years of age he claimed his inherited right to 
take his seat as ''first noble," and after being duly installed he 
appointed his relative. Seigneur van Odijk, to act as his deputy. 



248 THE LAST YEARS OF 

This done, he quietly returned to the Hague, having given a clear 
indication of the course he meant to pursue. 

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle had left a deep feeling of humilia- 
tion and rancour in the heart of Louis XIV ; and he was resolved 
to leave no stone unturned to wreak his vengeance on Holland and 
its council-pensionary. The Triple Alliance was plainly an ill- 
assorted combination. Charles H cared nothing about the fate of 
the Spanish Netherlands, and there was a strong party in England 
which hated the Dutch and wished to wipe out the memory of 
Chatham and to upset the treaty of Breda. Grievances about the 
settlement of questions concerning the East Indies and Surinam 
were raked up. Both Van Beuningen in London and Pieter de Groot 
in Paris sent warnings that the States should be prepared for war 
and at an early date, but the council-pensionary pinned his faith 
on Temple and the Alliance, and kept his eyes shut to the imminent 
danger. Meanwhile Louis had been bribing freely both in England 
and Sweden, and he had no difficulty in detaching the latter 
power from the Alliance. To England he sent over the beautiful 
Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, Charles' favourite sister, on a secret 
mission to the king, and she was speedily successful. The offer of 
an annual payment of 3,000,000 francs and the possession of 
Walcheren, which commanded the entrance to the Scheldt, effected 
their purpose. A secret treaty was signed at Dover on December 3 1 , 
1670, between Louis and Charles, by which the latter agreed, on 
being called upon to do so, to declare war upon Holland in con- 
junction with the French. 

Meanwhile De Witt was so absorbed in domestic politics and in 
the maintenance of the burgher-aristocratic party in power, that 
he seemed to have lost his usual statesmanlike acumen. He never 
ceased to work for the general acceptance of the Concept of 
Harmony. At last the three recalcitrant provinces (Friesland, 
Groningen and Zeeland), when William had reached his twenty- 
first year, agreed to accept it on condition that the prince were at 
once admitted to the Council of State. Even now De Witt tried 
to prevent the prince from having more than an advisory vote, but 
he was overruled through the opposition of Amsterdam to his views. 
All this time Louis was preparing his great plan for the crushing of 
the republic. He succeeded in gaining the promised assistance of 
England, Miinster and Cologne, and in detaching from the Dutch 



DE WITT'S ADMINISTRATION, 1665-1672 249 

the Emperor and the Swedes. The finances under Colbert were 
in a flourishing state, and a splendid army had been equipped by 
the great war minister, Louvois. It was in vain that Pieter de Groot 
sent warnings of coming peril. The council-pensionary was deaf, 
and the States- General still deafer. Temple had left (August, 1670) 
for a visit to London, and he never returned. For some months 
there was no resident English ambassador at the Hague. Finally, 
at the end of the year, Downing arrived, the very man who had 
done his utmost to bring about the war of 1665. De Witt still 
placed his hopes in the anti-French views of the English Parliament ; 
but in August, 1 671, it was dissolved by the king and was not sum- 
moned to meet again for a year and a half. Charles had therefore 
a free-hand, and the secret treaty of Dover was the result. The 
reports of De Groot became more and more alarming ; and De Witt 
found it necessary to urge the States to make preparations both by 
sea and land to resist attack. But he met with a luke-warm response. 
The fleet indeed was considerably strengthened, but the army was 
in a miserable state. At no time during the English wars had a 
powerful army been required, and the lesson taught by the invasion 
of the Bishop of Miinster had had little effect. The heavy charges 
of the naval war compelled the States and especially Holland, on 
whom the chief burden fell, to economise by cutting down the 
military expenses. Politically also the ruling burgher-regents 
in Holland had from past experience a wholesome fear lest the 
power of the sword wielded by another Maurice or William II 
should again overthrow the civil power. The consequence was that 
when Charles II declared war on March 28, 1672, and Louis on the 
following April 6, and a great French army of 120,000 men under 
Conde, Turenne and Luxemburg marched through Liege to invade 
the States, while another army of 30,000 men from Miinster and 
Cologne attacked farther north, all was confusion and panic, for 
it was felt that there was no possibility of effective resistance. The 
Bishop of Miinster was eager to take vengeance for his defeat in 
1666, and the Elector- Archbishop of Cologne was a Bavarian prince 
friendly to France. His help was the more valuable, as he was like- 
wise Bishop of Liege, and thus able to offer to the French armies 
a free passage through his territory. 

Not until the storm was actually bursting on them by sea and 
land at once were the various authorities in the threatened land 



250 DE WITT'S ADMINISTRATION 

induced to move in earnest. Confronted by the sudden crisis, De 
Witt however made the most strenuous efforts to meet it. A fleet 
of 150 ships was got ready and an army of some 50,000 men, 
mercenaries of many nationalities, hastily gathered together. It was 
a force without cohesion, discipline or competent officers. In the 
peril of the country all eyes were turned towards the Prince of 
Orange. William was now twenty-one years of age, but by the 
provisions of the Concept of Harmony his name was not to be 
proposed as captain-general until he had reached the age of 
twenty-two. But in the wave of feeling which swept over the 
country the paper barrier was dashed aside. In the Estates of 
Holland, which De Witt had so long controlled, and despite his 
strong opposition, the proposal to confer the post on William for 
one year was carried. All that the council-pensionary could effect 
was to surround the exercise of the office with so many restrictions 
as to deprive the prince of any real authority. These restrictions did 
not, however, meet the approval of the other provinces, and William 
himself refused to accept them. De Witt had to give way. William 
was appointed captain-general for one year (February 25, 1672). 
It appeared to be an absolutely hopeless task that this utterly in- 
experienced young man had to face. But the mere fact that once 
more a Prince of Orange was in command gave new hope. It was 
a name to conjure with ; and the holder of it, young as he was and 
with no previous military training, faced his task with the calm 
confidence which comes from conscious power and an inherited 
aptitude for the leadership of men. 



CHAPTER XVII 

WAR WITH FRANCE AND ENGLAND. WILLIAM III, 
. STADHOLDER. MURDER OF THE BROTHERS 

DE WITT, 1672 

The advance of the French armies and those of Miinster and 
Cologne to attack the eastern frontier of the United Provinces met 
with little serious resistance. Fortress after fortress fell; the line 
of the Yssel was abandoned. Soon the whole of Gelderland, 
Overyssel, Drente and Utrecht were in the possession of the 
enemy. Even the castle of Muiden, but ten miles from Amsterdam, 
was only saved from capture at the last moment by Joan Maurice 
throwing himself with a small force within the walls. The Prince 
of Orange had no alternative but to fall back behind the famous 
waterline of Holland. He had at his disposal, after leaving garrisons 
in the fortresses, barely 4000 men as a field-force. With some 
difficulty the people were persuaded to allow the dykes to be cut, 
as in the height of the struggle against Spain, and the country to 
be submerged. Once more behind this expanse of flood, stretching 
like a gigantic moat from Muiden on the Zuyder Zee to Gorkum 
on the Maas, Holland alone remained as the last refuge of national 
resistance to an overwhelming foe. True the islands of Zeeland 
and Friesland were yet untouched by invasion, but had Holland 
succumbed to the French armies their resistance would have availed 
little. At the end of June the aspect of affairs looked very black, 
and despite the courageous attitude of the young captain-general, 
and the ceaseless energy with which the council-pensionary worked 
for the equipment of an adequate fleet, and the provision of ways 
and means and stores, there seemed to be no ray of hope. Men's 
hearts failed them for fear, and a panic of despair filled the land. 

Had the combined fleets of England and France been able at this 
moment to obtain a victory at sea and to land an army on the coast, 
it is indeed difficult to see how utter and complete disaster could 
have been avoided. Fortunately, however, this was averted. It had 



252 WAR WITH FRANCE AND ENGLAND 

been De Witt's hope that De Ruyter might have been able to have 
struck a blow at the English ships in the Thames and the Medway 
before they had time to put to sea and effect a junction with the 
French. But the Zeeland contingent was late and it was the middle 
of May before the famous admiral, accompanied as in 1667 by 
Cornelis de Witt as the representative of the States-General, sailed 
at the head of seventy-five ships in search of the Anglo-French 
fleet. After delays through contrary winds the encounter took place 
in Southwold Bay on June 7. The Duke of York was the English 
admiral-in-chief, D'Estrees the French commander, and they had 
a united force of ninety ships. The Dutch, who had the wind-gauge, 
found the hostile squadrons separated from one another. De Ruyter 
at once took advantage of this. He ordered Vice- Admiral Banckers 
with the Zeeland squadron to contain the French, while he himself 
with the rest of his force bore down upon the Duke of York. The 
battle was contested with the utmost courage and obstinacy on both 
sides and the losses were heavy. The advantage, however, remained 
with the Dutch. The English flag-ship, the Royal James, was burnt ; 
and the duke was afterwards three times compelled to shift his flag. 
Both fleets returned to the home ports to refit ; and during the rest 
of the summer and early autumn no further attack was made on 
De Ruyter, who with some sixty vessels kept w^atch and ward along 
the coasts of Holland and Zeeland. The Dutch admiral had gained 
his object and no landing was ever attempted. 

But the battle of Southwold Bay, though it relieved the immediate 
naval danger, could do nothing to stay the advancing tide of invasion 
on land. The situation appeared absolutely desperate; trade was at 
a standstill; and the rapid fall in the State securities and in the 
East India Company's stock gave alarming evidence of the state of 
public opinion. In these circumstances De Witt persuaded the 
States-General and the Estates of Holland to consent to the sending 
of two special embassies to Louis, who was now at Doesburg, and 
to London, to sue for peace. They left the Hague on June 13, only 
to meet with a humiliating rebuff. Charles II refused to discuss the 
question apart from France. Pieter de Groot and his colleagues 
were received at Doesburg with scant courtesy and sent back to 
the Hague to seek for fuller powers. When they arrived they found 
the council-pensionary lying on a sick-bed. The countr^^'s disasters 
had been attributed to the De Witts, and the strong feeling against 



WILLIAM III, STADHOLDER 253 

them led to a double attempt at assassination. John de Witt, while 
walking home at the close of a busy day's work was (June 21) 
attacked by four assailants and badly wounded. The leader, Jacob 
van der Graeff , was seized and executed ; the others were allowed 
to escape, it was said by the prince's connivance. A few days later 
an attack upon Cornelis de Witt at Dordrecht likewise failed to 
attain its object. That such dastardly acts could happen without an 
outburst of public indignation was ominous of worse things to 
come. It was a sign that the whole country had turned its back 
upon the States party and the whole system of government of 
which for nineteen years John de Witt had been the directing 
spirit, and had become Orangist. Revolutionary events followed 
one another with almost bewildering rapidity. On July 2 the Estates 
of Zeeland appointed William to the office of Stadholder. The 
Estates of Holland repealed the Eternal Edict on July 3 ; and on the 
next day it was resolved on the proposal of Amsterdam to revive 
the stadholdership with all its former powers and prerogatives in 
favour of the Prince of Orange. The other provinces followed the 
lead of Holland and Zeeland ; and on July 8 the States-General 
appointed the young stadholder captain- and admiral-general of 
the Union. William thus found himself invested with all the offices 
and even more than the authority that had been possessed by his 
ancestors. Young and inexperienced as he was, he commanded 
unbounded confidence, and it was not misplaced. 

Meanwhile, despite the strong opposition of Amsterdam and 
some other towns, the fuller powers asked for by De Groot were 
granted, and he returned to the camp of Louis to endeavour to 
obtain more favourable terms of peace. He was unsuccessful. The 
demands of the French king included concessions of territory to 
Cologne, to Miinster and to England, and for himself the greater 
part of the Generality-lands with the great fortresses of Hertogen- 
bosch and Maestricht, a war indemnity of 16,000,000 francs, and 
complete freedom for Catholic worship. On July i De Groot 
returned to the Hague to make his report. The humiliating terms 
were rejected unanimously, but it was still hoped that now that 
the Prince of Orange was at the head of affairs negotiations might 
be resumed through the mediation of England. William even went 
so far as to send a special envoy to Charles II, offering large 
concessions to England, if the king would withdraw from the 



254 WAR WITH FRANCE AND ENGLAND 

French alliance. But it was in vain. On the contrary at this very- 
time (July 1 6) the treaty between Louis and Charles was renewed; 
and the demands made on behalf of England were scarcely less 
exorbitant than those put forward by Louis himself — the cession 
of Sluis, Walcheren, Cadsand, Voorne and Goerce, an indemnity 
of 25,000,000 francs, the payment of an annual subsidy for the 
herring fishery, and the striking of the flag. If all the conditions 
made by the two kings were agreed to, the sovereignty of the 
remnants of the once powerful United Provinces, impoverished and 
despoiled, was offered to the prince. He rejected it with scorn. When 
the Estates of Holland on the return of De Groot asked his advice 
about the French terms, the stadholder replied, "all that stands 
in the proposal is unacceptable; rather let us be hacked in pieces, 
than accept such conditions " ; and when an English envoy, after 
expressing King Charles' personal goodwill to his nephew, tried to 
persuade him to accept the inevitable, he met with an indignant 
refusal. " But don't you see that the Republic is lost," he is reported 
to have pleaded. " I know of one sure means of not seeing her down- 
fall," was William's proud reply, "to die in defence of the last 
ditch." 

The firm attitude of the prince gave courage to all ; and, whatever 
might be the case with the more exposed provinces on the eastern 
and south-eastern frontiers, the Hollanders and Zeelanders were 
resolved to sacrifice everything rather than yield without a desperate 
struggle. But the fact that they were reduced to these dire straits 
roused the popular resentment against the De Witts and the system 
of government which had for more than two decades been in 
possession of power. Their wrath was especially directed against 
the council-pensionary. Pamphlets were distributed broadcast in 
which he was charged amongst other misdoings with appropriating 
public funds for his private use. While yet suffering from the effects 
of his wounds De Witt appeared (July 23) before the Estates and 
vigorously defended himself. A unanimous vote declared him free 
from blame. 

Cornelis de Witt was, no less than his brother, an object of 
popular hatred. In the town of Dordrecht where the De Witt 
influence had been so long supreme his portrait in the Town-hall 
was torn to pieces by the mob and the head hung on a gallows. On 
July 24 he was arrested and imprisoned at the Hague on the charge 



WILLIAM III, STADHOLDER 255 

brought against him by a barber named Tichelaer, of being 
implicated in a plot to assassinate the prince. Tichelaer was well 
known to be a bad and untrustworthy character. On the un- 
supported testimony of this man, the Ruwaard, though indignantly 
denying the accusation, was incarcerated in the Gevangenpoort, to 
be tried by a commission appointed by the Estates. Great efforts 
were made by his friends and by his brother to obtain his release ; 
but, as the prince would not interfere, the proceedings had to take 
their course. John de Witt meanwhile, wishing to forestall a dis- 
missal which he felt to be inevitable, appeared before the Estates 
on August 4, and in an impressive speech voluntarily tendered his 
resignation of the post of council-pensionary, asking only for the 
redemption of the promise made to him that at the close of his 
tenure of office he should receive a judicial appointment. The 
resignation was accepted, the request granted, but owing to 
opposition no vote of thanks was given. Caspar Fagel was appointed 
council-pensionary in his place. 

The enemies of John de Witt were not content with his fall from 
power. A committee of six judges were empanelled to try his 
brother Cornelis for his alleged crime. On August 17, to their 
eternal disgrace, they by a majority vote ordered the prisoner, who 
was suffering from gout, to be put to the torture. The illustrious 
victim of their malice endured the rack without ffinching, insisting 
on his absolute innocence of any plot against the prince's life. 
Nevertheless, early on August 19, sentence was pronounced upon 
him of banishment and loss of all his offices. Later on the same day 
Cornelis sent a message to his brother that he should like to see him. 
John, in spite of strong warnings, came to the Gevangenpoort and 
was admitted to the room where the Ruwaard, as a result of the 
cruel treatment he had received, was lying in bed; and the two 
brothers had a long conversation. Meanwhile a great crowd had 
gathered round the prison clamouring for vengeance upon the De 
Witts. Three companies of soldiers were however drawn up under 
the command of Count Tilly with orders from the Commissioned- 
Councillors to maintain order. At the same time the schutterij — the 
civic guard — ^was called out. These latter, however, were not to be 
trusted and were rather inclined to fraternise with the mob. So 
long as Tilly's troops were at hand, the rioters were held in restraint 
and no acts of violence were attempted. It was at this critical 



256 WAR WITH FRANCE AND ENGLAND 

moment that verbal orders came to Tilly to march his troops to the 
gates to disperse some bands of marauding peasants who were said 
to be approaching. Tilly refused to move without a written order. 
It came, signed by Van Asperen,the president of the Commissioned- 
Councillors, a strong Orange partisan. On receiving it Tilly is said 
to have exclaimed, '' I will obey, but the De Witts are dead men." 
The soldiers were no sooner gone than the crowd, under the 
leadership of Verhoef , a goldsmith, and Van Bankhem, a banker, 
forced the door of the prison (the schutterij either standing aloof, 
or actually assisting in the attack), and rushing upstairs found John 
de Witt sitting calmly at the foot of his brother's bed reading aloud 
to him a passage of Scripture. Hands were laid upon both with 
brutal violence ; they were dragged into the street ; and there with 
blows of clubs and repeated stabs done to death. It was 4 p.m. when 
Tilly departed, at 4.30 all was over, but the infuriated rabble were 
not content with mere murder. The bodies were shamefully mis- 
handled and were finally hung up by the feet to a lamppost, 
round which to a late hour in the evening a crowd shouted, 
sang and danced. It is impossible to conceive a fate more 
horrible or less deserved. The poor dishonoured remains were 
taken down when night fell by faithful hands and were at dawn 
in the presence of a few relatives and friends interred in the 
Nieuwe Kerk. 

That William III had any complicity in this execrable f aid, as it 
was well styled by the new council-pensionary Fagel, there is not 
the slightest evidence. He was absent from the Hague at the time 
and wholly preoccupied with the sore necessities of the military 
position ; and it is said that he was much affected at hearing the 
dreadful news. But his naturally cold and self-contained nature had 
been hardened in the school of adversity during the long years of 
humiliation which had been imposed upon him by John de Witt 
and his party. He had endured in proud patience awaiting the hour 
when he could throw off the yoke, and now that it had come he 
could not forgive. Under the plea that the number of those implicated 
in the deed was so large that it was impossible to punish them and 
thus stir up party passions at a time when the whole energies of the 
nation were needed for the war, he took no steps to bring the 
offenders to justice. Unfortunately for his reputation he was not 
content with a neutral attitude, but openly protected and rewarded 



WILLIAM III, STADHOLDER 257 

the three chief offenders Tichelaer, Verhoef and Van Bankhem, all 
of them men of disreputable character. 

Thus two of the greatest statesmen and patriots that Holland 
has produced, John van Oldenbarneveldt and John de Witt, both 
perished miserably, victims of the basest national ingratitude ; and 
it will ever remain a stain upon the national annals and upon the 
memory of two illustrious Princes of Orange, Maurice and William 
III, that these tragedies were not averted. 



E. H. H. 17 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM III, 1 672-1 688 

In the early summer of 1672, when WiUiam resolved to concentrate 
all his available forces for the defence of Holland covered by its 
water-line, the military situation was apparently hopeless. Had 
Turenne and Luxemburg made a united effort to force this line 
at the opening of the campaign the probability is that they would 
have succeeded. Instead of doing so they expended their energies 
in the capture of a number of fortified places in Gelderland, 
Overyssel and North Brabant ; and in the meantime the stadholder 
was week by week strengthening the weak points in his defences, 
encouraging his men, personally supervising every detail and 
setting an example of unshaken courage and of ceaseless industry. 
He had at his side, as his field-marshal, George Frederick, Count 
of Waldeck, an officer of experience and skill who had entered the 
Republic's service, and Van Beverningh as Commissioner of the 
States- General. With their help and counsel he had before autumn 
an efficient army of 57,000 men on guard behind entrenchments at 
all assailable points, while armed vessels patrolled the waterways. 
Outside the line Nijmwegen, Grave, Coevorden, Steenwijk and 
other smaller places had fallen ; but the Miinster- Cologne forces, 
after a siege lasting from July 9 to August 28, had to retire from 
Groningen. The French armies were all this time being constantly 
weakened by having to place garrisons in the conquered provinces ; 
and neither Turenne nor Luxemburg felt strong enough to attack 
the strongly-protected Dutch frontiers behind the water-line. 

The prince, however, was not content with inaction. Assuming 
the offensive, he ventured on a series of attacks on Naarden and 
on Woerden, raised the siege of Maestricht, and finally made an 
attempt to cut the French communications by a march upon 
Charleroi. All these raids were more or less failures, since in each 
case William had to retreat without effecting anything of importance. 
Nevertheless the enterprise shown by the young general had the 
double effect of heartening his own troops and of undermining the 



WILLIAM III, 1672-1688 259 

overweening confidence of the enemy. A hard frost in December 
enabled Luxemburg to penetrate into Holland, but a rapid thaw 
compelled a hasty withdrawal. The only road open to him was 
blocked by a fortified post at Nieuwerbrug, but Colonel Vin et Pain, 
who was in command of the Dutch force, retired to Gouda and left 
the French a free passage, to the stadholder's great indignation. 
The colonel was tried on the charge of deserting his post, and shot. 
The year 1673 ^^^ marked by a decisive change for the better 
in the position of the States. Alarm at the rapid growth of the 
French power brought at last both Spanish and Austrian assistance 
to the hard-pressed Netherlands ; and the courage and skill of De 
Ruyter held successfully at bay the united fleets of England and 
France, and effectually prevented the landing of an army on the 
Dutch coast. Never did De Ruyter exhibit higher qualities of 
leadership than in the naval campaign of 1673. His fleet was greatly 
inferior in numbers to the combined Anglo-French fleet under 
Prince Rupert and D'Estrees. A stubborn action took place near 
the mouth of the Scheldt on June 7, in which the English had little 
assistance from the French squadron and finally retired to the 
estuary of the Thames. Another fierce fight at Kijkduin on August 
21 was still more to the advantage of the Dutch. Meanwhile on land 
the French had scored a real success by the capture of the great 
fortress of Maestricht with its garrison of 6000 men, after a siege 
which lasted from June 6 to July i. All attempts, however, to pass 
the water-line and enter Holland met with failure; and, as the 
summer drew to its close, the advance of Imperial and Spanish 
forces began to render the position of the French precarious. 
William seized his opportunity in September to capture Naarden 
before Luxemburg could advance to its relief. He then took a bolder 
step. In October, at the head of an army of 25,000 men, of whom 
15,000 were Spanish, he marched to Cologne and, after effecting 
a junction with the Imperial army, laid siege to Bonn, which sur- 
rendered on November 15. This brilliant stroke had great results. 
The French, fearing that their communications might be cut, 
withdrew from the Dutch frontier ; and at the same time the Miinster- 
Cologne forces hastily evacuated the eastern provinces. The stad- 
holder before the end of the year entirely freed the country from 
its invaders. Once more a Prince of Orange had saved the Dutch 
Republic in its extremity. 

17 — 2 



26o THE STADHOLDERATE OF 



1 



The effect of this was to place almost supreme power in his 
hands. Had the prince at this moment set his heart upon obtaining 
the title of sovereign, he would have had but little difficulty in 
gratifying his ambition. Leading statesmen like the Council- 
Pensionary Fagel,the experienced Van Beverningh, andValckenier, 
the most influential man in Amsterdam, would have supported him. 
But William was thoroughly practical. The freeing of the Provinces 
from the presence of the enemy was but the beginning of the task 
which he had already set before himself as his life-work, i.e. the 
overthrow of the menacing predominance of the French power 
under Louis XIV. His first care was the restoration of the well-nigh 
ruined land. The country outside the water-line had been cruelly 
devastated by the invaders, and then impoverished by having for 
a year and a half to maintain the armies of occupation. Large tracts 
on the borders of Holland, Utrecht and Friesland, submerged by 
the sea- waters through the cutting of the dams, had been rendered 
valueless for some years to come, while those parts of Holland and 
Zeeland on which the enemy had not set foot had been crushed 
beneath heavy taxes and the loss of commerce. 

The position of the three provinces, Utrecht, Gelderland and 
Overyssel, which had been overrun by the French at the opening 
of hostilities and held by them ever since, had to be re-settled. They 
had, during this period, paid no taxes, and had no representation 
in the States- General. Holland was in favour of reducing them to 
the status of Generality-lands until they had paid their arrears. 
The prince was opposed to any harshness of treatment, and his will 
prevailed. The three provinces were re-admitted into the Union, 
but with shorn privileges ; and William was elected stadholder by 
each of them with largely increased powers. The nomination, or the 
choice out of a certain number of nominees, of the members of the 
Town- Corporations, of the Courts of Justice and of the delegates 
to the States- General, was granted to him. The Dutch Republic 
was full of anomalies. In Utrecht, Gelderland and Overyssel we 
have the curious spectacle in the days of William III of the 
stadholder, who was nominally a servant of the Sovereign Estates, 
himself appointing his masters. As a matter of fact, the voice of these 
provinces was his voice ; and, as he likewise controlled the Estates 
in Zeeland, he could always count upon a majority vote in the 
States- General in support of his foreign policy. Nor was this all. 



WILLIAM III, 1672-1688 261 

Holland itself, in gratitude for its deliverance, had become enthusi- 
astically Orangist. It declared the stadholdership hereditar}^ in the 
male-line, and its example was followed by Zeeland, Utrecht, 
Gelderland and Overyssel, while the States- General in their 
turn made the captain- and admiral- generalship of the Union 
hereditary offices. Nor was gratitude confined to the conferring of 
powers and dignities which gave the prince in all but name 
monarchical authority. At the proposal of Amsterdam, the city 
which so often had been and was yet to be the stubborn opponent 
of the Princes of Orange, William II's debt of 2,000,000 fl. was 
taken over by the province of Holland ; Zeeland presented him with 
30,000 fl. ; and the East India Company with a grant of 3^ of its 
dividends. 

From the very first William had kept steadily in view a scheme 
of forming a great coalition to curb the ambitious designs of 
Louis XIV ; and for effecting this object an alliance between England 
and the United Pro\dnces was essential. The first step was to 
conclude peace. This was not a difficult task. The English Parlia- 
ment, and still more the English people, had throughout been averse 
from fighting on the side of the French against the Dutch. Charles II, 
with the help of French money, had been carrying on the war in 
opposition to the wishes of his subjects, who saw their fleets but 
feebly supported by their French allies, their trade seriously injured, 
and but Uttle chance of gaining any advantageous return for the 
heavy cost. Charles himself had a strong affection for his nephew, 
and began to turn a favourable ear to his proposals for negotiations, 
more especially as his heroic efforts to stem the tide of French 
invasion had met ^vith so much success. In these circumstances 
everything was favourable to an understanding; and peace was 
concluded at Westminster on February 19, 1674. The terms differed 
little from those of Breda, except that the Repubhc undertook to 
pay a war indemnity of 2,000,000 fl. within three years. The 
striking of the flag was conceded. Surinam remained in Dutch 
hands. New York, which had been retaken by a squadron under 
Cornelis Evertsen, August, 1673, was given back to the EngHsh 
crown. Negotiations were hke\\dse opened wdth INIunster and 
Cologne; and peace was concluded with Miinster (April 22) and 
with Cologne (May 11) on the basis of the evacuation of all con- 
quered territory. France was isolated and opposed now by a strong 



262 THE STADHOLDERATE OF 

coalition, the Republic having secured the help of Austria, Spain, 
Brandenburg and Denmark. The campaign of the summer of 1674 
thus opened under favouring circumstances, but nothing of 
importance occurred until August 11, when William at the head 
of an allied force of some 70,000 men encountered Conde at Seneff 
in Hainault. The battle was fought out with great obstinacy and 
there were heavy losses on both sides. The French, however, 
though inferior in numbers had the advantage in being a more 
compact force than that of the allies ; and William, poorly supported 
by the Imperialist contingents, had to retire from the field. He was 
never a great strategist, but he now conducted a retreat which 
extracted admiration from his opponents. His talents for command 
always showed themselves most conspicuously in adverse cir- 
cumstances. His coolness and courage in moments of peril and 
difficulty never deserted him, and, though a strict disciplinarian, 
he always retained the confidence and affection of his soldiers. On 
October 27 Grave was captured, leaving only one of the Dutch 
fortresses, Maestricht, in the hands of the French. 

The war on land dragged on without any decisive results during 
1675 . The stadholder was badly supported by his allies and reduced 
to the defensive; but, though tentative efforts were made by the 
English government to set on foot negotiations for peace, and a 
growing party in Holland were beginning to clamour for the 
cessation of a war which was crippling their trade and draining the 
resources of the country, the prince was resolutely opposed to the 
English offer of mediation, which he regarded as insincere and 
premature. He was well aware that there was in England a very 
strong and widespread opposition to the succession of James Duke 
of York, who made no secret of his devoted attachment to the 
Roman Catholic faith. So strong was the feeling that he had been 
compelled to resign his post of Lord-High- Admiral. The dislike 
and distrust he aroused had been accentuated by his second marriage 
to Mary of Modena, a zealous Catholic. William was the son of the 
eldest daughter of Charles I, and to him the eyes of a large party 
in England were turning. The prince was keenly alive to the 
political advantages of his position. He kept himself well informed 
of the intrigues of the court and of the state of public opinion by 
secret agents, and entered into clandestine correspondence with 
prominent statesmen. Charles H himself, though he had not the 



WILLIAM III, 1672-1688 263 

smallest sympathy with his nephew's political views, was as kindly 
disposed to him as his selfish and unprincipled nature would allow, 
and he even went so far as to encourage in 1674 ^^ alliance 
between him and his cousin Mary, the elder daughter of the 
Duke of York. But William had at that time no inclination for 
marriage. He was preoccupied with other things, and the age of 
Mary — she was only twelve — ^rendered it easy for him to postpone 
his final decision. 

Events were to force his hand. In 1676 the French king, fearing 
the power of the coalition that was growing in strength, endeavoured 
to detach the republic by offering to make a separate peace on 
generous terms. Despite the opposition of the stadholder, Dutch 
and French representatives met at Nijmwegen ; but William by his 
obdurate attitude rendered any settlement of the points in dispute 
impossible. In 1677, however, the capture of Valenciennes by the 
French and their decisive defeat of the allied army under William's 
command at Mont-Cassel (April 11) made it more difficult for him 
to resist the growing impatience of the burgher-class in Holland 
and especially of the merchants of Amsterdam at his opposition 
to peace. He was accused of wishing to continue the war from 
motives of personal ambition and the desire of military glory. In 
February of this year, however, Charles II after a period of personal 
rule was through lack of resources compelled to summon parlia- 
ment. It no sooner met than it showed its strong sympathy with 
the Netherlands ; and the king speedily saw that he could no longer 
pursue a policy opposed to the wishes of his people. When, therefore, 
William sent over his most trusted friend and counsellor, Bentinck, 
to London on a secret mission in the summer, he met with a most 
favourable reception ; and the prince himself received an invitation 
to visit his uncle with the special object of renewing the proposal 
for his marriage with the Princess Mary. William accordingly 
arrived in London on October 19 ; and, the assent of the king and 
the Duke of York being obtained, the wedding was celebrated with 
almost indecent haste. It was a purely political union; and when, 
early in December, the Prince and Princess of Orange set sail for 
Holland, the young girl wept bitterly at having to leave her home 
for a strange land at the side of a cold, unsympathetic husband. 
The weeks he spent in England had been utilised by the prince to 
good purpose. He persuaded Charles to promise his support by 



264 THE STADHOLDERATE OF 

land and sea to the Netherlands in case the terms of peace offered by 
the allies were rejected by the French. A treaty between the States 
and Great Britain giving effect to this promise was actually signed 
on January 29, 1678. The results, however, did not answer William's 
expectations. The English Parliament and the States alike had no 
trust in King Charles, nor was the English match at first popular 
in Holland. A strong opposition arose against the prince's war policy. 
The commercial classes had been hard hit by the French invasion, 
and they were now suffering heavy losses at sea through the Dunkirk 
privateers led by the daring Jean Bart. The peace party included 
such tried and trusted statesmen as Van Beverningh, Van Beuningen 
and the Council-Pensionary Fagel, all of them loyal counsellors of 
the stadholder. So resolute was the attitude of Amsterdam that the 
leaders of both municipal parties, Valckenier and Hooft, were 
agreed in demanding that the French offers of a separate peace 
should be accepted. On the same side was found Henry Casimir, 
Stadholder of Friesland, who was jealous of his cousin's autocratic 
exercise of authority. 

The pourparlers at Nijmwegen were still going on, but made no 
progress in face of William's refusal to treat except in concert with 
his allies. Louis XIV, however, fully informed of the state of public 
opinion and of the internal dissensions both in the United Provinces 
and in England, was not slow to take advantage of the situation. A 
powerful French army invaded Flanders and made themselves 
masters of Ypres and Ghent and proceeded to besiege Mons . William , 
despite the arrival of an English auxiliary force under Monmouth, 
could do little to check the enemy's superior forces. Meanwhile 
French diplomacy was busy at Amsterdam and elsewhere in the 
States, working against the war parties ; and by the offer of favourable 
terms the States- General were induced to ask for a truce of six weeks. 
It was granted, and the Dutch and Spanish representatives at Nijm- 
wegen (those of the emperor, of Brandenburg and of Denmark re- 
fusing to accede) speedily agreed to conclude peace on the following 
terms : the French to restore Maestricht and to evacuate all occupied 
Dutch territory, and to make a commercial treaty. Spain to surrender 
an important slice of southern Flanders, but to be left in possession 
of a belt of fortresses to cover their Netherland possessions against 
further French attack. But, though these conditions were accepted, 
the French raised various pretexts to delay the signature of the 



WILLIAM III, 1672-1688 265 

treaty, hoping that meanwhile Mons, which was closely beleaguered 
by Luxemburg, might fall into their hands, and thus become an 
asset which they could exchange for some other possession. The 
States and the Spanish Government were both anxious to avoid 
this; and the Prince of Orange, who steadily opposed the treaty, 
returned towards the end of July to his camp to watch the siege of 
Mons and prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy. At the 
same time (July 26) King Charles, who had been working through 
Sir William Temple for the conclusion of peace, now declared that, 
unless the treaty was signed before August 1 1 , he would assist the 
allies to enforce it. The French diplomatists at Nijmwegen had 
hitherto declared that their troops would not evacuate Maestricht 
and the other places which they had agreed to restore to the States, 
until Brandenburg and Denmark had evacuated the territory they 
had conquered from Sweden. On August 10, just before time for 
resuming hostilities had been reached, they tactfully conceded this 
point and promised immediate evacuation, if the treaty were at once 
concluded. Van Beverningh and his colleagues accordingly, acting 
on their instructions, affixed their signatures just before midnight. 
They fell into the trap laid for them, for the treaty between 
France and Spain was not yet signed, and it was the intention of 
the French to make further pretexts for delay in the hope that Mons 
meanwhile would fall. The report of the conclusion of peace reached 
the stadholder in his camp on August 13, but unofficially. On the 
morning of August 14 D'Estrades came personally to bring the news 
to Luxemburg ; and the French marshal was on the point of for- 
warding the message to the Dutch camp, when he heard that 
Orange was advancing with his army to attack him, and he felt that 
honour compelled him to accept the challenge. A sanguinary fight 
took place at St Denis, a short distance from Mons. William exposed 
his life freely, and though the result was nominally a drawn battle, 
he achieved his purpose. Luxemburg raised the siege of Mons, and 
the negotiations with Spain were pressed forward. The treaty was 
signed on September 17, 1678. The peace of Nijmwegen thus 
brought hostilities to an end, leaving the United Provinces in posses- 
sion of all their territory. It lasted ten years, but it was only an 
armed truce. Louis XIV desired a breathing space in which to 
prepare for fresh aggressions ; and his tireless opponent, the Prince 
of Orange, henceforth made it the one object of his life to form a 



266 THE STADHOLDERATE OF 

Grand Alliance to curb French ambition and uphold in Europe 
what was henceforth known as "the Balance of Power." 

In setting about this task William was confronted with almost 
insuperable difficulties. The Dutch people generally had suffered 
terribly in the late invasions and were heartily sick of war. The 
interest of the Hollanders and especially of the Amsterdammers 
was absorbed in the peaceful pursuits of commerce. The far- 
reaching plans and international combinations, upon which William 
concentrated his whole mind and energies, had no attraction for 
them, even had they understood their purpose and motive. The 
consequence was that the prince encountered strong opposition, 
and this not merely in Holland and Amsterdam, but from his 
cousin Henry Casimir and the two provinces of which he was 
stadholder. In Amsterdam the old ''States" party revived under 
the leadership of Valckenier and Hooft; and in his latter days 
Van Beuningen was ready to resist to the utmost any considerable 
outlay on the army or navy or any entangling alliances. They held 
that it was the business of the Republic to attend to its own affairs 
and to leave Louis to pursue his aggressive policy at the expense 
of other countries, so long as he left them alone. The ideal which 
William III had set before him was the exact reverse of this ; and, 
unfortunately for his own country, throughout his life he often sub- 
ordinated its particular interests to the wider European interests 
which occupied his attention. 

The work of building up afresh a coalition to withstand the ever- 
growing menace of the formidable French power could scarcely 
have been more unpromising than it now appeared. Spain was 
utterly exhausted and feeble. Brandenburg and Denmark had been 
alienated by the States concluding a separate peace at Nijmwegen 
and leaving them in the lurch. The attention of the emperor was 
fully occupied in defending Hungary and Vienna itself against the 
Turks. England under Charles II was untrustworthy and vacillating, 
almost a negligible quantity. A visit made by William to London 
convinced him that nothing was at present to be hoped for from 
that quarter. At the same time the very able French ambassador 
at the Hague, D'Avaux, did his utmost to foment the divisions and 
factions in the Provinces. He always insisted that he was accredited 
to the States-General and not to the Prince of Orange, and carried 
on correspondence and intrigues with the party in Amsterdam 



WILLIAM III, 1672-1688 267 

opposed to the stadholder's anti-French policy. The cumbrous and 
complicated system of government enabled him thus to do much 
to thwart the prince and to throw obstacles in his way. The curious 
thing is, that William was so intent on his larger projects that he 
was content to use the powers he had without making any serious 
attempt, as he might have done, to make the machine of government 
more workable by reforms in the direction of centrahsation. 
Immersed in foreign affairs, he left the internal administration in 
the hands of subordinates chosen rather for their subservience than 
for their ability and probity ; and against several of them, notably 
against his relative Odijk, serious charges were made. Odijk, repre- 
senting the prince as first noble in Zeeland, had a large patronage ; 
and he shamelessly enriched himself by his venal traffic in the 
disposal of offices wdthout a word of rebuke from William, in whose 
name he acted. On the contrar}^, he continued to enjoy his favour. 
Corruption was scarcely less rife in Holland, though no one 
practised it quite on the same scale as Odijk in Zeeland. William 
indeed cared Httle about the domestic politics of the Republic, 
except in so far as they affected his diplomatic activities ; and in this 
domain he knew how to employ able and devoted men. He had 
Waldeck at his side not merely as a military adviser, but as a skilful 
diplomatist w^ell versed in the intricate politics of the smaller 
German states ; Everhard van Weede, lord of Dijkveld, and Godard 
van Rheede, lord of Amerongen, proved worthy successors of Van 
Beverningh and Van Beuningen. Through the Council-Pensionary 
Fagel he was able to retain the support of the majority in the 
Estates of Holland, despite the strong opposition he encountered 
at Amsterdam and some other towns, where the interests of 
commerce reigned supreme. The death of Gillis Valckenier, the 
ablest of the leaders of the opposition in Amsterdam, in 1680 left 
the control of affairs in that city in the hands of Nicolaes Witsen 
and Johan Hudde, but these were men of less vigour and deter- 
mination than Valckenier. 

Louis XIV meanwhile had been actively pushing forward his 
schemes of aggrandisement. Strasburg was seized in August, 1681 ; 
Luxemburg was occupied ; claims were made under the treaty of 
Nijmwegen to certain portions of Flanders and Brabant, and troops 
were despatched to take possession of them. There was general 
alarm; and, with the help of Waldeck, William was able to secure 



268 THE STADHOLDERATE OF 

the support of a number of the small German states in the Rhenish 
circle, most of them always ready to hire out their armed forces 
for a subsidy. Sweden also offered assistance. But both England 
and Brandenburg were in secret collusion with France, and the 
emperor would not move owing to the Turkish menace. 

In these circumstances Spain was compelled (1684) by the entry 
of the armies of Louis into the southern Netherlands to declare war 
upon France, and called upon the States for their military aid of 8000 
men in accordance with the terms of the treaty of Nijmwegen. 
Orarfge at once referred the matter to the Council of State, and 
himself proposed that 16,000 should be sent. As this, however, 
could only mean a renewal of the war with France, the proposal 
met with strong opposition in many quarters, and especially in 
Amsterdam. Prosperity was just beginning to revive, and a 
remembrance of past experiences filled the hearts of many with 
dread at the thought of the French armies once more invading their 
land. The Amsterdam regents even went so far as to enter into 
secret negotiations with D'Avaux; and they were supported by 
Henry Casimir, who was always ready to thwart his cousin's policy. 
William was checkmated and at first, in his anger, inclined to follow 
his father's example and crush the opposition of Amsterdam by 
force. He possessed however, which William H had not, the 
support of a majority in the Estates of Holland. He used this with 
effect. The raising of the troops was sanctioned by the Estates 
(January 3 1 , 1684), an intercepted cipher-letter from D'Avaux being 
skilfully used to discredit the Amsterdam leaders, who were accused 
of traitorous correspondence with a foreign power. Nevertheless 
the prince, although he was able to override any active opposition 
at home, did not venture, so long as England and Brandenburg were 
on friendly relations with France, to put pressure upon the States- 
General. The French troops, to the prince's chagrin, overran 
Flanders ; and he had no alternative but to concur in the truce for 
twenty years concluded at Ratisbon, August 15, 1684, which left the 
French king in possession of all his conquests. 

No more conclusive proof of the inflexible resolve of William HI 
can be found than the patience he now exhibited. His faith in 
himself was never shaken , and his patience in awaiting the favour- 
able moment was inexhaustible. To him far more appropriately than 
to his great-grandfather might the name of William the Silent have 



WILLIAM III, 1672-1688 269 

been given. He had no confidants, except Waldeck and William 
Bentinck ; and few could even guess at the hidden workings of that 
scheming mind or at the burning fires of energy and will-power 
beneath the proud and frigid reserve of a man so frail in body and 
always ailing. Very rarely could a born leader of men have been 
more unamiable or less anxious to win popular applause, but his 
whole demeanour inspired confidence and, ignoring the many 
difficulties and oppositions which thwarted him, he steadfastly bided 
his time and opportunity. It now came quickly, for the year 1685 
was marked by two events — the accession of James II to the throne 
of England, and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes — ^which 
were to have far-reaching consequences. 

The new King of England was not merely a strong but a bigoted 
Roman Catholic. Had he been a wise and patriotic prince, he would 
have tried by a studiously moderate policy to win the loyal allegiance 
of his subjects, but he was stubborn, wrong-headed and fanatical, 
and from the first he aimed at the impossible. His attempts to 
establish absolute rule, to bring back the EngHsh nation to the fold 
of the Catholic Church and, as a means to that end, to make himself 
independent of Parliament by accepting subsidies from the French 
king, were bound to end in catastrophe. This was more especially 
the case as Louis XIV had, at the very time of King James' accession, 
after having for a number of years persecuted the Huguenots in 
defiance of the Edict of Nantes, taken the step of revoking that 
great instrument of religious toleration on November 17, 1685. 
The exile of numerous families, who had already been driven out 
by the dragonnades, was now followed by the expulsion of the 
entire Huguenot body, of all at least who refused to conform to the 
Catholic faith. How many hundreds of thousands left their homes 
to find refuge in foreign lands it is impossible to say, but amongst 
them were great numbers of industrious and skilled artisans and 
handicraftsmen, who sought asylum in the Dutch Republic and 
there found a ready and sympathetic welcome. The arrival of these 
unhappy inunigrants had the eff"ect of arousing a strong feeling of 
indignation in Holland, and indeed throughout the provinces, against 
the government of Louis XIV . They began to see that the poHcy 
of the French king was not merely one of territorial aggression, but 
was a crusade against Protestantism. The governing classes in 
Holland, Zeeland, Friesland and Groningen were stirred up by the 



270 THE STADHOLDERATE OF 

preachers to enforce more strictly the laws against the Catholics in 
those provinces, for genuine alarm was felt at the French menace 
to the religion for which their fathers had fought and suffered. The 
cause of Protestantism was one with which the Princes of Orange 
had identified themselves ; but none of his ancestors was so keen 
an upholder of that cause as was William III. The presence in their 
midst of the Huguenot refugees had the effect of influencing public 
opinion powerfully in the States in favour of their stadholder's 
warlike policy. Nor was the Dutch Republic the only State which 
was deeply moved by the ruthless treatment of his Protestant 
subjects by the French king. The Elector of Brandenburg, as head 
of the principal Protestant State in Germany, had also offered an 
asylum to the French exiles and now reverted once more to his 
natural alliance with the United Provinces. He sent his trusted coun- 
cillor, Paul Fuchs, in May, 1685, to offer to his nephew, the Prince 
of Orange, his friendly co-operation in the formation of a powerful 
coalition against France. Fuchs was a skilled diplomatist, and by his 
mediation an understanding was arrived at between the stadholder 
and his opponents in Amsterdam. At the same time strong family 
influence was brought to bear upon Henry Casimir of Friesland, 
and a reconciliation between the two stadholders was effected. 
William thus found himself, before the year 1685 came to an end, 
able to pursue his policy without serious let or hindrance. He was 
quite ready to seize his opportunity, and by tactful diplomacy he 
succeeded by August, 1686, in forming an alliance between the 
United Provinces, Brandenburg, Sweden, Austria, Spain and a 
number of the smaller Rhenish states, to uphold the treaties of 
Westphalia and Nijmwegen against the encroachments of French 
military aggression. But the design of William was still incomplete. 
The naval power and financial resources of England were needed 
to enable the coalition to grapple successfully with the mighty 
centralised power of Louis XIV. 

In England the attempt of James II to bring about a Catholic 
reaction by the arbitrary use of the royal prerogative was rapidly 
alienating the loyalty of all classes, including many men of high 
position, and even some of his own ministers. William watched 
keenly all that was going on and kept himself in close correspondence 
with several of the principal malcontents. He was well aware that 
all eyes were turning to him (and he accepted the position) as the 



WILLIAM III, 1672-1688 271 

natural defender, should the need arise, of England's civil and 
religious liberties. The need arose and the call came in the summer 
of 1688, and it found William prepared. The climax of the conflict 
between King James and his people was reached with the acquittal 
of the Seven Bishops in May, 1688, amidst public rejoicings, speedily 
followed on June 10 by the birth of a Prince of Wales. The report 
was spread that the child was supposititious and it was accepted as 
true by large numbers of persons, including the Princess Anne, and 
also, on the strength of her testimony, by the Prince and Princess 
of Orange. 

The secret relations of William with the leaders of opposition 
had for some time been carried on through his trusted confidants, 
Dijkveld, the State's envoy at the EngHsh Court, and William of 
Nassau, lord of Zuilestein. A bold step was now taken. Several 
Englishmen of note signed an invitation to the prince to land in 
England with an armed force in defence of the religion and liberties 
of the country ; and it was brought to him by Admiral Russell, one 
of the signatories. After some hesitation William, with the consent 
and approval of the princess, decided to accept it. No man ever had 
a more loyal and devoted wife than William III of Orange, and he 
did not deserve it. For some years after his marriage he treated 
Mary with coldness and neglect. He confessed on one occasion to 
Bishop Burnet that his churlishness was partly due to jealousy ; he 
could not bear the thought that Mary might succeed to the English 
throne and he would in that country be inferior in rank to his wife. 
The bishop informed the princess, who at once warmly declared 
that she would never accept the crown unless her husband received 
not merely the title of king, but the prerogatives of a reigning 
sovereign. From that time forward a complete reconciliation took 
place between them, and the affection and respect of William for 
this loyal, warm-hearted and self-sacrificing woman deepened as 
the years went on. Mary's character, as it is revealed in her private 
diaries, which have been preserved, deserves those epithets. 
Profoundly religious and a convinced Protestant, Mary with prayers 
for guidance and not without many tears felt that the resolve of her 
husband to hazard all on armed intervention in England was fully 
justified; and at this critical juncture she had no hesitation in 
allowing her sense of duty to her husband and her country to 
override that of a daughter to her father. 



272 THE STADHOLDERATE OF 

Already in July vigorous preparations in all secrecy began to be 
made for the expedition. The naval yards were working at full 
pressure with the ostensible object of sending out a fleet to suppress 
piracy in the Mediterranean. The stadholder felt that he was able 
to rely upon the willing co-operation of the States in his project. His 
difficulty now, as always, was to secure the assent of Amsterdam. But 
the opposition of that city proved less formidable than was antici- 
pated. The peril to Protestantism should England under James II 
be leagued with France, was evident, and scarcely less the security 
of the commerce on which Amsterdam depended for its prosperity. 
The support of Amsterdam secured that of the Estates of Holland ; 
and finally, after thus surmounting successfully the elements of 
opposition in the town and the province, where the anti-Orange 
party was most strongly represented, the prince had little difficulty 
in obtaining, on October 8, the unanimous approval of the States- 
General, assembled in secret session, to the proposed expedition. 
By that time an army of 14,000 men had been gathered together 
and was encamped at Mook. Of these the six English and Scottish 
regiments, who now, as throughout the War of Independence, were 
maintained in the Dutch service, formed the nucleus. The force also 
comprised the prince's Dutch guards and other picked Dutch troops, 
and also some German levies. Marshal Schombergwas in command. 
The pretext assigned was the necessity of protecting the eastern 
frontier of the Republic against an attack from Cologne, where 
Cardinal Fiirstenberg, the nominee and ally of Louis XIV, had 
been elected to the archiepiscopal throne. 

Meanwhile diplomacy was active. D'Avaux was far too clear- 
sighted not to have discerned the real object of the naval and 
military preparations, and he warned both Louis XIV and James II. 
James, however, was obdurate and took no heed, while Louis 
played his enemy's game by declaring war on the Emperor and the 
Pope, and by invading the Palatinate instead of the Republic. For 
William had been doing his utmost to win over to his side, by the 
agency of Waldeck and Bentinck, the Protestant Princes of Germany, 
with the result that Brandenburg, Hanover, Saxony, Brunswick 
and Hesse had undertaken to give him active support against a 
French attack ; while the constant threat against her possessions in 
the Belgic Netherlands compelled Spain to join the anti-French 
league which the stadholder had so long been striving to bring 



WILLIAM III, 1672-1688 273 

into existence. To these were now added the Emperor and the Pope, 
who, being actually at war with France, were ready to look favour- 
ably upon an expedition which would weaken the common enemy. 
The Grand Alliance of William's dreams had thus (should his 
expedition to England prove successful) come within the range of 
practical politics ; and with his base secured Orange now determined 
to delay no longer, but 'to stake everything upon the issue of the 
English venture. 

The prince bade farewell to the States- General on October 26, 
and four days later he set sail from Helvoetsluis, but was driven 
back by a heavy storm, which severely damaged the fleet. A fresh 
start was made on November 1 1 . Admiral Herbert was in command 
of the naval force, which convoyed safely through the Channel 
without opposition the long lines of transports. Over the prince's 
vessel floated his flag with the words Pro Religione et Libertate 
inscribed above the motto of the House of Orange, J^e maintiendray. 
Without mishap a landing was eff"ected at Torbay, November 14 
(5 O.S.), which was William's birthday, and a rapid march was made 
to Exeter. He met with no armed resistance. James' troops, his 
courtiers, his younger daughter the Princess Anne, all deserted 
him; and finally, after sending away his wife and infant son to- 
France, the king himself left his palace at Whitehall by night and 
fled down the river to Sheerness. Here he was recognised and 
brought back to London. It was thought, however, best to connive 
at his escape, and he landed on the coast of France at Christmas. 
The expedition had achieved its object and William, greeted as a 
deliverer, entered the capital at the head of his army. 

On February 13, 1689, a convention, specially summoned for the 
purpose, declared that James by his flight had vacated the throne ; 
and the crown was offered to William and Mary jointly, the 
executive power being placed in the hands of the prince. 



E. H. H. 18 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE KING-STADHOLDER, 1688-1702 

The accession of William III to the throne of England was an event 
fraught with important consequences to European politics and to 
the United Provinces. The king was enabled at last to realise the 
formation of that Grand Alliance for which he had so long been 
working. The treaty of Vienna, signed on May 12, 1689, encircled 
France with a ring of enemies, and saw the Emperor and Spain 
united with the Protestant powers, England, the States and many 
of the German princes in a bond of alliance for the maintenance 
of the treaties of Westphalia and the Pyrenees. It was not without 
some difficulty that William succeeded in inducing the States to 
enter into an offensive and defensive alliance with England. A 
special embassy consisting of Witsen, Odijk, Dijkveld and others 
was sent to London early in 1689 to endeavour to bring about some 
mutually advantageous arrangement of the various conflicting 
maritime and commercial interests of the two countries. But they 
could effect nothing. The English government refused either to 
repeal or modify the Navigation Act or to reduce the toll for 
fishing privileges; and it required all the personal influence of 
William to secure the signing of a treaty (September 3), which 
many leading Hollanders considered to be a subordinating of Dutch 
to English interests. And they were right ; from this time began that 
decline of Dutch commercial supremacy which was to become 
more and more marked as the i8th century progressed. The policy 
of William III, as Frederick the Great remarked most justly, placed 
Holland in the position of a sloop towed behind the English ship- 
of-the-line. 

The carrying trade of the world was still, however, in the reign 
of William III practically in the hands of the Dutch, despite the 
losses that had been sustained during the English wars and the 
French invasion. The only competitor was England under the 
shelter of the Navigation Act. The English had, under favourable 
conditions, their staple at Dordrecht, the Scots their staple atVeere ; 



THE KING-STADHOLDER, 1688-1702 275 

and the volume of trade under the new conditions of close alliance 
was very considerable. But the imports largely exceeded the exports ; 
and both exports and imports had to be carried in English bottoms. 
The Baltic (or Eastern) trade remained a Dutch monopoly, as did 
the trade with Russia through Archangel. Almost all the ships that 
passed through the Sound were Dutch ; and they frequented all the 
Baltic ports, whether Russian, Scandinavian or German, bringing 
the commodities of the South and returning laden with hemp, 
tallow, wood, copper, iron, corn, wax, hides and other raw products 
for distribution in other lands. The English had a small number 
of vessels in the Mediterranean and the Levant, and frequented the 
Spanish and Portuguese harbours, but as yet they hardly interfered 
with the Dutch carrying- trade in those waters. The whole trade of 
Spain with her vast American dominions was by law restricted to 
the one port of Cadiz ; but no sooner did the galleons bringing the 
rich products of Mexico and Peru reach Cadiz than the bulk of their 
merchandise was quickly transhipped into Dutch vessels, which here, 
as elsewhere, were the medium through which the exchange of 
commodities between one country and another was effected. It was 
a profitable business, and the merchants of Amsterdam and of the 
other Dutch commercial centres grew rich and prospered. 

The position of the Dutch in the East Indies at the close of the 
17th century is one of the marvels of history. The East India 
Company, with its flourishing capital at Batavia, outdistanced all 
competitors. It was supreme in the Indian archipelago and along 
all the shores washed by the Indian Ocean. The governor-general 
was invested with great powers and, owing to his distance from the 
home authority, was able to make unfettered use of them during 
his term of office. He made treaties and conducted wars and was 
looked upon by the princes and petty rulers of the Orient as a 
mighty potentate. The conquest of Macassar in 1669, the occupa- 
tion of Japara and Cheribon in 1680, of Bantam in 1682, of 
Pondicherry in 1693, together with the possession of Malacca and 
of the entire coast of Ceylon, of the Moluccas, and of the Cape of 
Good Hope, gave to the Dutch the control of all the chief avenues 
of trade throughout those regions. By treaties of alliance and 
commerce with the Great Mogul and other smaller sovereigns and 
chieftains factories were established at Hooghly on the Ganges, at 
Coelim, Surat, Bender Abbas, Palembang and many other places. 

18—2 



276 THE KING-STADHOLDER, 1688-1702 

In the Moluccas they had the entire spice trade in their hands. 
Thus a very large part of the products of the Orient found its 
way to Europe by way of Amsterdam, which had become increasingly 
the commercial emporium and centre of exchange for the world. 

The West India Company, on the other hand, had been ruined by 
the loss of its Brazilian dominion followed by the English wars. Its 
charter came to an end in 1674, ^^^ it was replaced by a new Com- 
pany on a more moderate scale. Its colonies on the Guiana coast, 
Surinam, Berbice and Essequibo were at the end of the 17th century 
in an impoverished condition, but already beginning to develop the 
sugar plantations which were shortly to become a lucrative industry ; 
and the island of Cura^oa had the unenviable distinction of 
being for some years one of the chief centres of the negro slave 
trade. 

In the United Provinces themselves one of the features of this 
period was the growth of many new industries and manufactures, 
largely due to the influx of Huguenot refugees, many of whom were 
skilled artisans. Not only did the manufacturers of cloth and silk 
employ a large number of hands, but also those of hats, gloves, rib- 
bons, trimmings, laces, clocks and other articles, which had hitherto 
been chiefly produced in France. One of the consequences of the 
rapid increase of wealth was a change in the simple habits, manners 
and dress, which hitherto travellers had noted as one of the most 
remarkable characteristics of the Hollanders. Greater luxury began 
to be displayed, French fashions and ways of life to be imitated, 
and the French language to be used as the medium of intercourse 
among the well-to-do classes. Another sign of the times was the 
spread of the spirit of speculation and of gambling in stocks and 
shares, showing that men were no longer content to amass wealth 
by the slow process of ordinary trade and commerce. This state of 
prosperity, which was largely due to the security which the close 
alliance with England brought to the Republic, explains in no small 
measure the acquiescence of the Dutch in a state of things which 
made the smaller country almost a dependency of the larger. They 
were proud that their stadholder should reign as king in Britain ; 
and his prolonged absences did not diminish their strong attach- 
ment to him or lessen his authority among them. So much greater 
indeed was the power exercised by William in the Republic than 
that which, as a strictly constitutional sovereign, he possessed in the 



THE KING-STADHOLDER, 1688-1702 277 

kingdom, that it was wittily said that the Prince of Orange was 
stadholder in England and king in Holland. 

It must not be supposed, however, that William in his capacity 
as stadholder was free from worries and trials. He had many; and, 
as usual, Amsterdam was the chief centre of unrest. After the 
expedition set sail for Torbay, William was continuously absent for 
no less than two and a half years. It is no wonder therefore that 
during so long a period, when the attention of the king was absorbed 
by other pressing matters, difficulties should have arisen in his 
administration of the affairs of the Republic. It was very unfortunate 
that his most able and trusted friend and adviser, the Council- 
Pensionary Fagel, should have died, in December, 1688, just when 
William's enterprise in England had reached its most critical stage. 
Fagel was succeeded, after a brief interval, in his most important 
and influential office by Antony Heinsius. Heinsius, who had been 
for some years Pensionary of Delft, was a modest, quiet man, 
already forty-five years of age, capable, experienced and business- 
like. His tact and statesmanlike quaUties were of the greatest service 
to William and scarcely less to his country, at a time when urgent 
duties in England made it so difficult for the stadholder to give 
personal attention to the internal aff"airs of the Republic. No other 
Prince of Orange had ever so favourable an opportunity as William 
III for effecting such changes in the system of government and 
administration in the Dutch Republic as would simplify and co- 
ordinate its many rival and conflicting authorities, and weld its 
seven sovereign provinces into a coherent State with himself (under 
whatever title) as its "eminent head." At the height of his power 
his will could have over-ridden local or partisan opposition, for he 
had behind him the prestige of his name and deeds and the over- 
whelming support of popular opinion. But William had little or no 
interest in these constitutional questions. Being childless, he had 
no dynastic ambitions. The nearest male representative of his house 
was Henry Casimir, the stadholder of Friesland, with whom his 
relations had been far from friendly. In his mind, everything else 
was subordinate to the one and overruling purpose of his life, 
the overthrow of the power of Louis XIV and of French ascendancy 
in Europe. 

The great coalition which had been formed in 1689 by the 
treaty of Vienna was, in the first years of the war which then broke 



278 THE KING-STADHOLDER, 1688-1702 

out, attended with but mediocre success. The French armies laid 
waste the Palatinate with great barbarity, and then turned their 
attentions to the southern Netherlands. The attempted invasion 
was, however, checked by an allied force (August 25) in a sharp 
encounter near Charleroi. The next year, 1690, was particularly 
unfortunate for the allies. William was still absent, having been 
obliged to conduct an expedition to Ireland. He had placed 
the aged Marshal Waldeck in command of the Coalition forces. 
Waldeck had the redoubtable Luxemburg opposed to him and 
on July I the two armies met at Fleurus, when, after a hard- 
fought contest, the allies suffered a bloody defeat. An even greater 
set-back was the victory gained by Admiral Tourville over the 
combined Anglo-Dutch fleet off Beachy Head (July 10). The Dutch 
squadron under Cornelis Evertsen bore the brunt of the fight and 
suffered heavily. They received little help from the English con- 
tingent ; and the English Admiral Torrington was accused of having 
wilfully sacrificed his allies. The effect was serious, for the French 
enjoyed for a while the rare satisfaction of holding the command of 
the Channel. The complete triumph of King William at the battle 
of the Boyne (July 12) relieved somewhat the consternation felt at 
this naval disaster, and set him free to devote his whole attention 
to the Continental war. His return to the Hague early in 1691 
caused general rejoicing, and he was there able to concert with his 
allies the placing of a large force in the field for the ensuing 
campaign. The operations were, however, barren of any satisfactory 
results. Luxemburg advanced before the allies were ready, and burnt 
and plundered a large tract of country. William, acting on the 
defensive, contented himself with covering the capital and the rest 
of Flanders and Brabant from attack ; and no pitched battle took 
place. 

Great preparations were made by Louis XIV in the spring of 
1692 for the invasion of England. Troops were collected on the 
coast, and the squadron under D'Estrees at Toulon was ordered to 
join the main fleet of Tourville at Brest. Contrary winds delayed 
the junction ; and Tourville rashly sailed out and engaged off La 
Hogue a greatly superior allied fleet on May 29. The conflict this 
time chiefly fell upon the English, and after a fierce fight the French 
were defeated and fled for refuge into the shoal waters. Here they 
were followed by the lighter vessels and fire-ships of the allies ; and 



THE KING-STADHOLDER, 1688-1702 279 

the greater part of the French fleet was either burnt or driven upon 
the rocks (June i). The maritime power of France was for the time 
being destroyed, and all fears of invasion dissipated. On land ill- 
success continued to dog the footsteps of the allies. The strong 
fortress of Namur was taken by the French; and, after a hotly 
contested battle at Steinkirk, William was compelled by his old 
adversary Luxemburg to retreat. William, though he was rarely 
victorious on the field of battle, had great qualities as a leader. His 
courage and coolness won the confidence of his troops, and he was 
never greater than in the conduct of a retreat. This was shown 
conspicuously in the following year (1693), when, after a disastrous 
defeat at Neerwinden (July 29), again at the hands of Luxemburg, 
he succeeded at imminent personal risk in withdrawing his army 
in good order in face of the superior forces of the victorious enemy. 

In 1694 the allies confined themselves to defensive operations. 
Both sides were growing weary of war ; and there were strong parties 
in favour of negotiating for peace both in the Netherlands and in 
England. Some of the burgher-regents of Amsterdam, Dordrecht 
and other towns even went so far as to make secret overtures to the 
French government, and they had the support of the Frisian Stad- 
holder; but William was resolutely opposed to accepting such 
conditions as France was willing to off'er, and his strong will 
prevailed. 

The position of the king in England was made more difficult by 
the lamented death of Queen Mary on January 2, 1695. William had 
become deeply attached to his wife during these last years, and for 
a time he was prostrated by grief. But a strong sense of public duty 
roused him from his depression; and the campaign of 1695 was 
signalised by the most brilliant military exploit of his life, the 
recapture of Namur. That town, strong by its natural position, had 
been fortified by Vauban with all the resources of engineering skill, 
and was defended by a powerful garrison commanded by Marshal 
Boufflers. But William had with him the famous Coehoorn, in 
scientific siege- warfare the equal of Vauban himself. At the end of 
a month the town of Namur was taken, but Boufflers withdrew to 
the citadel. Villeroy, at the head of an army of 90,000 men, did his 
utmost to compel the king to raise the siege by threatening Brussels ; 
but a strong allied force watched his movements and successfully 
barred his approach to Namur. At last, on September 5, Boufflers 



28o THE KING-STADHOLDER, 1 688-1702 

capitulated after a gallant defence on the condition that he and his 
troops should march out with all the honours of war. 

The campaign of 1696 was marked by no event of importance; 
indeed both sides were thoroughly tired out by the protracted and 
inconclusive contest. Moreover the failing health of Charles II of 
Spain threatened to open out at any moment the vital question of 
the succession to the Spanish throne. Louis XIV, William III and 
the emperor were all keenly alive to the importance of the issue, 
and wished to have their hands free in order to prepare for a 
settlement, either by diplomatic means or by a fresh appeal to arms. 
But peace was the immediate need, and overtures were privately 
made by the French king to each of the allied powers in 1696. At 
last it was agreed that plenipotentiaries from all the belligerents 
should meet in congress at Ryswyck near the Hague with the 
Swedish Count Lilienrot as mediator. The congress was opened on 
May 9, 1697, but many weeks elapsed before the representatives of 
the various powers settled down to business. Heinsius and Dijkveld 
were the two chief Dutch negotiators. The emperor, when the 
other powers had come to terms, refused to accede; and finally 
England, Spain and the United Provinces determined to conclude 
a separate peace. It was signed on September 20 and was based upon 
the treaties of Nijmwegen and Miinster. France, having ulterior 
motives, had been conciliatory. Strasburg was retained, but most 
of the French conquests were given up. William was recognised as 
King of England, and the Principality of Orange was restored to him. 
With the Dutch a commercial treaty was concluded for twenty-five 
years on favourable terms. 

It was well understood, however, by all the parties that the peace 
of Ryswyck was a truce during which the struggle concerning the 
Spanish Succession would be transferred from the field of battle 
to the field of diplomacy, in the hope that some solution might 
be found. The question was clearly of supreme importance to the 
States, for it involved the destiny of the Spanish Netherlands. 
England, too, had great interests at stake, and was determined to 
prevent the annexation of the Belgic provinces by France. With 
Charles II the male line of the Spanish Habsburgs became extinct; 
and there were three principal claimants in the female line of 
succession. The claim of the Dauphin was much the strongest, for 
he was the grandson of Anne of Austria, Philip Ill's eldest daughter, 



THE KING-STADHOLDER, 1688-1702 281 

and the son of Maria Theresa of Austria, Charles IFs eldest sister. 
But both these queens of France had on their marriage solemnly 
renounced their rights of succession. Louis XIV, however, asserted 
that his wife's renunciation was invalid, since the dowry, the 
payment of which was guaranteed by the marriage contract, had 
never been received. The younger sister of Maria Theresa had been 
married to the emperor ; and two sons and a daughter had been the 
fruit of the union. This daughter in her turn had wedded the Elector 
of Bavaria, and had issue one boy of ten years. The Elector 
himself, Maximilian Emmanuel, had been for five years Governor 
of the Spanish Netherlands, where his rule had been exceedingly 
popular. William knew that one of the chief objects of the French 
king in concluding peace was to break up the Grand Alliance and 
so prepare the way for a masterful assertion of his rights as soon as 
the Spanish throne was vacant ; and with patient diplomatic skill 
he set to work at once to arrange for such a partition of the Spanish 
monarchy among the claimants as should prevent the Belgic 
provinces from falling into the hands of a first-class power and 
preserve Spain itself with its overseas possessions from the rule of 
a Bourbon prince. He had no difficulty in persuading the States to 
increase their fleet and army in case diplomacy should fail, for the 
Dutch were only too well aware of the seriousness of the French 
menace to their independence. In England, where jealousy of a 
standing army had always been strong, he was less successful, and 
Parliament insisted on the disbanding of many thousands of 
seasoned troops. The object at which William aimed was a partition 
treaty; and a partition was actually arranged (October 11, 1698). 
This arrangement, according to the ideas of the time, paid 
no respect whatever to the wishes of the peoples, who were 
treated as mere pawns by these unscrupulous diplomatists. The 
Spanish people, as might be expected, were vehemently opposed to 
any partition of the empire of Charles V and Philip II ; and, in 
consequence of the influences that were brought to bear. upon him, 
Charles II left by will the young electoral prince, Joseph Ferdinand, 
heir to his whole inheritance. By the secret terms of the partition 
treaty the crown of Spain together with the Netherlands and the 
American colonies had been assigned to the Bavarian claimant, but 
the Spanish dominions in Italy were divided between the two other 
claimants, the second son of the Dauphin, Philip, Duke of Anjou, 



282 THE KING-STADHOLDER, 1688-1702 

receiving Naples and Sicily; the second son of the emperor, the 
Archduke Charles, the Milanese. Unfortunately, Joseph Ferdinand 
fell sick of the small-pox and died (March, 1699). With William and 
Heinsius the main point now was to prevent the French prince 
from occupying the Spanish throne ; and in all secrecy negotiations 
were again opened at the Hague for a second partition treaty. They 
found Louis XIV still willing to conclude a bargain. To the Duke of 
Anjouwas now assigned, in addition to Naples and Sicily, the duchy 
of Lorraine (whose duke was to receive the Milanese in exchange) ; 
the rest of the Spanish possessions were to fall to the Archduke 
Charles (March, 1700). The terms of this arrangement between the 
French king and the maritime powers did not long remain a secret ; 
and when they were known they displeased the emperor, who did 
not wish to see French influence predominant in Italy and his own 
excluded, and still more the Spanish people, who objected to any 
partition and to the Austrian ruler. The palace of Charles II 
became a very hot-bed of intrigues, and finally the dying king was 
persuaded to make a fresh will and nominate Anjou as his universal 
heir. Accordingly on Charles' death (November i, lyoo) Philip V 
was proclaimed king. 

For a brief time Louis was doubtful as to what course of action 
would be most advantageous to French interests, but not for long. 
On November 1 1 he publicly announced to his court at Versailles 
that his grandson had accepted the Spanish crown. This step was 
followed by the placing of French garrisons in some of the frontier 
fortresses of the Belgic Netherlands by consent of the governor, 
the Elector of Bavaria. The following months were spent in the 
vain efforts of diplomacy to obtain siich guarantees from the French 
king as would give security to the States and satisfaction to England 
and the emperor, and so avoid the outbreak of war. In the States 
Heinsius, who was working heart and soul with the stadholder in 
this crisis, had no difficulty in obtaining the full support of all parties, 
even in Holland, to the necessity of making every effort to be ready 
for hostilities. William had a more difficult task in England, but he 
had the support of the Whig majority in Parliament and of the 
commercial classes; and he laboured hard, despite constant and 
increasing ill-health, to bring once more into existence the Grand 
Alliance of 1689. In July negotiations were opened between the 
maritime powers and the emperor at the Hague, which after lengthy 



THE KING-STADHOLDER, 1688-1702 283 

discussions were brought to a conclusion in September, in no small 
degree through the tact and persuasiveness of Lord Marlborough, 
the English envoy, who had now begun that career which was shortly 
to make his name so famous. The chief provisions of the treaty of 
alliance, signed on September 7, 1701 , were that Austria was to have 
the Italian possessions of Spain; the Belgic provinces were to 
remain as a barrier and protection for Holland against French 
aggression ; and England and the States were to retain any conquests 
they might make in the Spanish West Indies. Nothing was said 
about the crown of Spain, a silence which implied a kind of 
recognition of Philip V. To this league were joined Prussia, Hanover, 
Liineburg, Hesse- Cassel, while France, to whom Spain was now 
allied, could count upon the help of Bavaria. War was not yet 
declared, but at this very moment Louis XIV took a step which was 
wantonly provocative. James II died at St Germain on September 6 ; 
and his son was at once acknowledged by Louis as King of England, 
by the title of James III. This action aroused a storm of indignation 
among the English people, and William found himself supported 
by public opinion in raising troops and obtaining supplies for war. 
The preparations were on a vast scale. The emperor undertook to 
place 90,000 men in the field ; England, 40,000 ; the German states, 
54,000; and the Republic no less than 100,000. William had 
succeeded at last in the object of his life ; a mighty confederation 
had been called into being to maintain the balance of power in 
Europe, and overthrow the threatened French domination. This 
confederation in arms, of which he was the soul and the acknowledged 
head, was destined to accomplish the object for which itwas formed, 
but not under his leadership. The king had spent the autumn in 
Holland in close consultation with Heinsius, visiting the camps, the 
arsenals and the dockyards, and giving instructions to the admirals 
and generals to have everything in readiness for the campaign of 
the following spring. Then in November he went to England to 
hurry on the preparations, which were in a more backward con- 
dition than in the States. But he had overtaxed his strength. Always 
frail and ailing, William had for years by sheer force of will-power 
conquered his bodily weakness and endured the fatigue of cam- 
paigns in which he was content to share all hardships with his 
soldiers. In his double capacity, too, of king and stadholder, the 
cares of government and the conduct of foreign affairs had left him 



284 THE KING-STADHOLDER, 1688-1702 

no rest. Especially had this been the case in England during the 
years which had followed Queen Mary's death, when he found 
himself opposed and thwarted and humiUated by party intrigues 
and cabals, to such an extent that he more than once thought of 
abdicating. He was feeling very ill and tired when he returned, and 
he grew weaker, for the winter in England always tried him. His 
medical advisers warned him that his case was one for which 
medicine was of no avail, and that he was not fit to bear the strain 
of the work he was doing. But the indomitable spirit of the man 
would not give way, and he still hoped with the spring to be able 
to put himself at the head of his army. It was not to be ; an accident 
was the immediate cause by which the end came quickly. He was 
riding in Bushey Park when his horse stumbled over a mole-hill 
and the king was thrown, breaking his collar-bone (March 14, 1702). 
The shock proved fatal in his enfeebled state ; and, after lingering 
for four days, during which, in full possession of his mental faculties, 
he continued to discuss affairs of state, he calmly took leave of his 
special friends, Bentinck, Earl of Portland and Keppel, Earl of 
Albemarle, and of the English statesmen who stood round his death- 
bed, and, after thanking them for their services, passed away. 
For four generations the House of Orange had produced great 
leaders of men, but it may be said without disparage;ment to his 
famous predecessors that the last heir-male of that House was the 
greatest of them all. He saved the Dutch Republic from destruction ; 
and during the thirty years of what has well been called his reign 
he gave to it a weighty place in the Councils of Europe and raised 
it to a height of great material prosperity. But even such services 
as these were dwarfed by the part that he played in laying the 
foundation of constitutional monarchy in England, and of the 
balance of power in Europe. It is difficult to say whether Holland, 
England or Europe owed the deepest debt to the life-work of 
William III. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION AND THE 
TREATIES OF UTRECHT, 1702-1715 

William III left no successor to take his place. The younger 
branch of the Nassau family, who had been, from the time of John 
of Nassau, stadholders of Friesland and, except for one short 
interval, of Groningen, and who by the marriage of William 
Frederick with Albertina Agnes, younger daughter of Frederick 
Henry, could claim descent in the female line from William the 
Silent, had rendered for several generations distinguished services 
to the Republic, but in 1702 had as its only representative a boy of 
14 years of age, by name John William Friso. As already narrated, 
the relations between his father, Henry Casimir, and William III 
had for a time been far from friendly ; but a reconciliation took place 
before Henry Casimir's untimely death, and the king became god- 
father to John William Friso, and by his will left him his heir. The 
boy had succeeded by hereditary right to the posts of stadholder 
and captain-general of Friesland and Groningen under the 
guardianship of his mother, but such claims as he had to succeed 
William III as stadholder in the other provinces were, on account 
of his youth, completely ignored. As in 1650, Holland, Zeeland, 
Utrecht, Gelderland and Overyssel reverted once more to a 
stadholder less form of government. 

Fortunately this implied no change of external policy. The men 
who had for years been fellow-workers with King William and were 
in complete sympathy with his aims continued to hold the most 
important posts in the government of the Republic, and to control 
its policy. That policy consisted in the maintenance of a close 
alliance with England for the purpose of curbing the ambitious 
designs of Louis XIV. Foremost among these statesmen were 
Antony Heinsius, the council-pensionary of Holland, Simon van 
Slingelandt, secretary of the Council of State since 1690, and Jan 
Hop, the treasurer-general of the Union. In England the 
recognition by Louis of the Prince of Wales as King James III had 



286 WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION 

thoroughly aroused the popular feeling against France ;and Anne the 
new queen determined to carry out her predecessor's plans. The 
two maritime powers, closely bound together by common interests, 
and the ties which had arisen between them during the thirteen 
years of the reign of the king-stadholder, were to form the nucleus 
of a coalition with Austria and a number of the German states, 
including Prussia and Hanover (to which Savoy somewhat later 
adhered), pledged to support the claims of the Archduke Charles 
to the Spanish throne. For the Dutch it was an all-important 
question, for with Philip V reigning at Madrid the hegemony of 
France in Europe seemed to be assured. Already French troops 
were in possession of the chief fortresses of the so-called Spanish 
Netherlands. Face to face with such a menace it was not difficult 
for Heinsius to obtain not only the assent of the States-General, 
but of the Estates of Holland, practically without a dissenting voice, 
to declare war upon France and Spain (May 8, 1702) ; and this was 
quickly followed by similar declarations by England and Austria. 

The Grand Alliance had an outward appearance of great 
strength, but in reality it had all the weaknesses of a coalition, its 
armies being composed of contingents from a number of countries, 
whose governments had divergent aims and strategic objects, and 
it was opposed by a power under absolute rule with numerous and 
veteran armies inspired by a long tradition of victory under brilliant 
leaders. In 1702, however, the successors of Turenne and Luxem- 
burg were by no means of the same calibre as those great generals. 
On the other hand, the allies were doubly fortunate in being led by 
a man of exceptional gifts. John Churchill, Earl (and shortly after- 
wards Duke) of Marlborough, was placed in supreme command of 
the Anglo-Dutch armies. Through the influence of his wife with 
the weak Queen Anne, the Whig party, of which Marlborough and 
his friend Godolphin the lord-treasurer were the heads, was 
maintained in secure possession of power ; and Marlborough thus 
entered upon his command in the full confidence of having the 
unwavering support of the home government behind him. Still this 
would have availed little but for the consummate abilities of this 
extraordinary man. As a general he displayed a military genius, both 
as a strategist and a tactician, which has been rarely surpassed. 
For ten years he pursued a career of victory not marred by a single 
defeat, and this in spite of the fact that his army was always com- 



AND THE TREATIES OF UTRECHT, 1702-1715 287 

posed of heterogeneous elements, that his subordinates of different 
nationalities were jealous of his authority and of one another, and 
above all, as will be seen, that his bold and well-laid plans were 
again and again hindered and thwarted by the timidity and obstinacy 
of the civilian deputies who were placed by the States- General at 
his side. Had Marlborough been unhampered, the war would 
probably have ended some years before it did; as it was, the 
wonderful successes of the general were made possible by his skill 
and tact as a diplomatist. He had, moreover, the good fortune to 
have at his side in the Imperialist general. Prince Eugene of Savoy, 
a commander second only to himself in brilliance and leadership. 
In almost all wars the Austrian alliance has proved a weak support 
on which to trust ; but now, thanks to the outstanding capacity of 
Eugene, the armies of Austria were able to achieve many triumphs. 
The vigorous participation of the emperor in this war, in support 
of the claims of his second son, was only made possible by the 
victories of the Italian general over the Turks, who had overrun 
Hungary and threatened Vienna. And now, in the still more 
important sphere of operations in the West in which for a series 
of years he had to co-operate with Marlborough, it is to the infinite 
credit of both these great men that they worked harmoniously and 
smoothly together, so that at no time was there even a hint of any 
jealousy between them. In any estimate of the great achievements of 
Marlborough it must never be forgotten that he not only had Eugene 
at his right hand in the field, but Heinsius in the council chamber. 
Heinsius had always worked loyally and sympathetically with 
William III ; and it was in the same spirit that he worked with the 
English duke, who brought William's life-task to its triumphant 
accomplishment. Between Marlborough and Heinsius, as between 
Marlborough and Eugene, there was no friction — surely a convincing 
tribute to the adroit and tactful persuasiveness of a commanding 
personality. 

In July, 1702, Marlborough at the head of 65,000 men faced 
Marshal Bouffiers with a French army almost as strong numerically, 
the one in front of Nijmwegen, the other in the neighbourhood of 
Liege. Leaving a force of 25,000 Dutch and Brandenburgers to 
besiege Kaiserswerth, Marlborough by skilful manoeuvring prevented 
Boufflers from attempting a relief, and would on two occasions have 
been able to inflict a severe defeat upon him had he not been each 



288 WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION 

time thwarted by the cautious timidity of the Dutch deputies. 
Kaisers werth, however, fell, and in turn Rheinberg, Venloo, Roere- 
monde and Liege; and the campaign ended successfully, leaving 
the allies in command of the lower Rhine and lower Meuse. 

That of 1703 was marred even more effectually than that of the 
previous year by the interference of the deputies, and the ill- 
concealed opposition to Marlborough of certain Dutch generals, 
notably of Slangenburg. The duke was very angry, and bitter 
recriminations ensued. In the end Slangenburg was removed from 
his command ; and the appointment of Ouwerkerk, as field-marshal 
of the Dutch forces, relieved the tension, though the deputies were 
still present at headquarters, much to Marlborough's annoyance. 
The campaign resulted in the capture of Bonn, Huy and Limburg, 
but there was no general action. 

The year 1704 saw the genius of Marlborough at length assert 
itself. The French had placed great armies in the field, Villeroy in 
the Netherlands, Tallard in Bavaria, where in conjunction with the 
Bavarian forces he threatened to descend the Danube into the heart 
of Austria. Vienna itself was in the greatest danger. The troops 
under Lewis of Baden and under Eugene were, even when united, 
far weaker than their adversaries. In these circumstances Marl- 
borough deterrAined by a bold strategical stroke to execute a flank 
march from the Netherlands right across the front of the Franco- 
Bavarian army and effect a junction with the Imperialists. He had 
to deceive the timid Dutch deputies by feigning to descend the 
Meuse with the intention of working round Villeroy *s flank ; then, 
leaving Ouwerkerk to contain that marshal, he set out on his daring 
adventure early in May and carried it out with complete success. 
His departure had actually relieved the Netherlands, for Villeroy 
had felt it necessary with a large part of his forces to follow 
Marlborough and reinforce the Franco-Bavarians under Marshal 
Tallard and the Elector. The two armies met at Blenheim (Hoch- 
stadt) on August 13. The battle resulted in the crushing victory of 
the allies under Marlborough and Eugene. Eleven thousand 
prisoners were taken, among them Tallard himself. The remnant 
of the French army retired across the Rhine. Vienna was saved, and 
all Bavaria was overrun by the Imperialists. 

Meanwhile at sea the Anglo-Dutch fleet was incontestably 
superior to the enemy; and the operations were confined to the 



AND THE TREATIES OF UTRECHT, 1702-1715 289 

immediate neighbourhood of the Peninsula. William HI had before 
his death been preparing an expedition for the capture of Cadiz. 
His plan was actually carried out in 1702, when a powerful fleet 
under the supreme command of Admiral Sir George Rooke sailed 
for Cadiz ; but the attack failed owing to the incompetence of the 
Duke of Ormonde, who commanded the military forces. In this 
expedition a strong Dutch squadron under Philip van Almonde 
participated. Almonde was a capable seaman trained in the school 
of Tromp and De Ruyter ; and he took a most creditable part in the 
action off Vigo, October 23, in which a large portion of the silver 
fleet was captured, and the Franco- Spanish fleet, which formed its 
escort, destroyed. The maritime operations of 1703 were unevent- 
ful, the French fleet being successfully blockaded in Toulon 
harbour. 

The accession of Portugal in the course of this year to the Grand 
Alliance was important in that it opened the estuary of the Tagus 
as a naval base, and enabled the Archduke Charles to land with a 
body of troops escorted by an Anglo-Dutch fleet under Rooke and 
Callenberg. This fleet later in the year (August 4) was fortunate 
in capturing Gibraltar without much loss, the defences having been 
neglected and inadequately garrisoned. In this feat of arms, which 
gave to the English the possession of the rock fortress that 
commands the entrance into the Mediterranean, the Dutch under 
Callenberg had a worthy share, as also in the great sea-fight off 
Malaga on August 24, against the French fleet under the Count of 
Toulouse. The French had slightly superior numbers, and the 
allies, who had not replenished their stores after the siege of 
Gibraltar, were short of ammunition. Though a drawn battle, so 
far as actual losses were concerned, it was decisive in its results. 
The French fleet withdrew to the shelter of Toulon harbour ; and 
the allies* supremacy in the midland sea was never again throughout 
the war seriously challenged. The Dutch ships at the battle of 
Malaga were twelve in number and fought gallantly, but it was the 
last action of any importance in which the navy of Holland took 
part. There had been dissensions between the English and Dutch 
commanders, and from this time forward the admiralties made no 
effort to maintain their fleet in the state of efficiency in which it had 
been left by William III. The cost of the army fell heavily upon 
Holland, and money was grudged for the maintenance of the navy, 

2. H. H. 19 



290 WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION 

whose services, owing to the weakness of the enemy, were not 
required. 

The military campaign of 1705 produced small results, the plans 
of Marlborough for an active offensive being thwarted by the Dutch 
deputies. The duke's complaints only resulted in one set of deputies 
being replaced by another set of civilians equally impracticable. 
There was also another reason for a slackening of vigour. The 
Emperor Leopold I died on May 5. His successor Joseph I had no 
children, so that the Archduke Charles became the heir-apparent 
to all the possessions of the Austrian Habsburgs. Louis XIV 
therefore seized the opportunity to make secret overtures of peace 
to some of the more influential Dutch statesmen through the 
Marquis D'AUegne, at that time a prisoner in the hands of the Dutch. 
The French were willing to make many concessions in return for 
the recognition of Philip V as King of Spain. In the autumn 
conversations took place between Heinsius, Buys the pensionary of 
Amsterdam, and others, with D'AUegne and Rouille, an accredited 
agent of the French government. Matters went so far that Buys 
went to London on a secret mission to discuss the matter with 
the English minister. The English cabinet, however, refused to 
recognise Philip V; and, as the Dutch demand for a strong barrier 
of fortresses along the southern frontier of the Netherlands was 
deemed inadmissible at Versailles, the negotiations came to an end. 

In 1706 Marlborough's bold proposal to join Eugene in Italy, 
and with their united forces to drive the French out of that country 
and to march upon Toulon, failed to gain the assent of the Dutch 
deputies. The duke, after much controversy and consequent delay, 
had to content himself with a campaign in Belgium. It was brilliantly 
carried out. On Whit Sunday, May 23, at Ramillies the allies 
encountered the enemy under the command of Marshal Villeroi 
and the Elector of Bavaria. The French were utterly defeated with 
very heavy loss ; and such was the vigour of the pursuit that the 
shattered army was obliged to retire to Courtrai, leaving Brabant 
and Flanders undefended. In rapid succession Louvain, Antwerp, 
Ghent, Bruges and other towns surrendered to Marlborough, and 
a little later Ostend, Dendermonde, Menin and Ath; and the 
Archduke Charles was acknowledged as sovereign by the greater 
part of the southern Netherlands. In Italy and Spain also things 
had gone well with the allies. 



AND THE TREATIES OF UTRECHT, 1702-1715 291 

This series of successes led Louis XIV to make fresh overtures 
of peace to the States- General, whom the French king hoped to 
seduce from the Grand Alliance by the bait of commercial advan- 
tages both with Spain and France and a good ''barrier." He was 
even ready to yield the crown of Spain to the Archduke Charles on 
condition that Philip of Anjou were acknowledged as sovereign of 
the Spanish possessions in Italy. Heinsius however was loyal to the 
English alliance; and, in face of the determination of the English 
government not to consent to any division of the Spanish inheri- 
tance, the negotiations again came to nothing. 

The year 1707 saw a change of fortune. Austria was threatened 
by the victorious advance of Charles XII of Sweden through Poland 
into Saxony. A French army under Villars crossed the Rhine 
(May 27) and advanced far into south-eastern Germany. The 
defence of their own territories caused several of the German 
princes to retain their troops at home instead of sending them as 
mercenaries to serve in the Netherlands under Marlborough. The 
duke therefore found himself unable to attack the superior French 
army under Vendome, and acted steadfastly on the defensive. An 
attempt by Eugene, supported by the English fleet, to capture 
Toulon ended in dismal failure and the retreat of the Imperialists 
with heavy loss into Italy. In Spain the victory of Berwick at 
Almanza (April 27) made Philip V the master of all Spain, except 
a part of Catalonia. 

But, though Marlborough had been reduced to immobility in 
1 707, the following campaign was to witness another of his wonderful 
victories. At the head of a mixed force of 80,000 men he was 
awaiting the arrival of Eugene with an Imperialist army of 35,000, 
when Vendome unexpectedly took the offensive while he still had 
superiority in numbers over his English opponent. Rapidly over- 
running western Flanders he made himself master of Bruges and 
Ghent and laid siege to Oudenarde. By a series of brilliant move- 
ments Marlborough out-marched and out-manoeuvred his 
adversary and, interposing his army between him and the French 
frontier, compelled him to risk a general engagement. It took place 
on July II, 1708, and ended in the complete defeat of the French, 
who were only saved by the darkness from utter destruction. Had the 
bold project of Marlborough to march into France forthwith been 
carried out, a deadly blow would have been delivered against the 

19 — 2 



292 WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION 

very vitals of the enemy's power and Louis XIV probably compelled 
to sue for peace on the allies' terms. But this time not only the 
Dutch deputies, but also Eugene, were opposed to the daring 
venture, and it was decided that Eugene should besiege Lille, while 
Marlborough with the field army covered the operations. Lille was 
strongly fortified, and Marshal Boufflers made a gallant defence. 
The siege began in mid- August ; the town surrendered on October 22, 
but the citadel did not fall until December 9. Vendome did his best 
to cut oflF Eugene's supplies of munitions and stores, and at one 
time the besiegers were reduced to straits. The French marshal did 
not, however, venture to force an engagement with Marlborough's 
covering army, a portion of which under General Webb, after 
gaining a striking victory over a French force at Wynendael, 
(September 30), conducted at a critical moment a large train of 
supplies from Ostend into Eugene's camp. As a consequence of 
the capture of Lille, the French withdrew from Flanders into their 
own territory, Ghent and Bruges being re-occupied by the allies 
with a mere show of resistance. 

The reverses of 1708 induced the French king to be ready to 
yield much for the sake of peace. He offered the Dutch a strong 
barrier, a favourable treaty of commerce and the demolition of the 
defences of Dunkirk ; and there were many in Holland who would 
have accepted his terms. But their English and Austrian allies 
insisted on the restoration of Louis' German conquests, and that 
the king should, by force if necessary, compel his grandson to leave 
Spain. Such was the exhaustion of France that Louis would have 
consented to almost any terms however harsh, but he refused 
absolutely to use coercion against Philip V. The negotiations went 
on through the spring nor did they break down until June, 1709, 
when the exorbitant demands of the allies made further progress 
impossible. Louis issued a manifesto calling upon his subjects to 
support him in resisting terms which were dishonouring to France. 

He met with a splendid response from all classes, and a fine army 
of 90,000 men was equipped and placed in the field under the 
command of Marshal Villars. The long delay over the negotiations 
prevented Marlborough and Eugene from taking the field until 
June. They found Villars had meanwhile entrenched himself in 
Artois in a very strong position. Marlborough's proposal to advance 
by the sea-coast and outflank the enemy being opposed both by 



AND THE TREATIES OF UTRECHT, 1702-1715 293 

Eugene and the Dutch deputies as too daring, siege was laid to 
Tournay. Campaigns in those days were dilatory affairs. Tournay 
was not captured until September 3 ; and the allies, having over- 
come this obstacle without any active interference, moved forward to 
besiege Mons. They found Villars posted atMalplaquet on a narrow 
front, skilfully fortified and protected on both flanks by woods. 
A terrible struggle ensued (September 11, 1709), the bloodiest 
in the war. The Dutch troops gallantly led by the Prince of 
Orange attacked the French right, but were repulsed with very 
heavy losses. For some time the fight on the left and centre of the 
French line was undecided, the attacking columns being driven 
back many times, but at length the allies succeeded in turning the 
extreme left and also after fearful slaughter in piercing the centre ; 
and the French were compelled to retreat. They had lost 12,000 
men, but 23,000 of the allies had fallen; the Dutch divisions had 
suffered the most severely, losing almost half their strength. The 
immediate result of this hard- won victory was the taking of Mons, 
October 9. The lateness of the season prevented any further 
operations. Nothing decisive had been achieved, for on all the other 
fields of action, on the Rhine, on the Piedmont frontier and in Spain, 
the advantage had on the whole been with the French and Spaniards. 
Negotiations proceeded during the winter (1709-10), Dutch and 
French representatives meeting both at the Hague and at Geertrui- 
denberg. The States were anxious for peace and Louis was willing 
to make the concessions required of him, but Philip V refused to 
relinquish a crown which he held by the practically unanimous 
approval of the Spanish people. The emperor on the other hand 
was obstinate in claiming the undivided Spanish inheritance for 
the Archduke Charles. The maritime powers, however, would not 
support him in this claim; and the maritime powers meant 
England, for Holland followed her lead, being perfectly satisfied with 
the conditions of the First Barrier Treaty, which had been drawn 
up and agreed upon between the States- General and the English 
government on October 29, 1709. By this secret treaty the Dutch 
obtained the right to hold and to garrison a number of towns along 
the French frontier, the possession of which would render them 
the real masters of Belgium. Indeed it was manifest that, although 
the Dutch did not dispute the sovereign rights of the Archduke 
Charles, they intended to make the southern Netherlands an 



294 WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION 

economic dependency of the Republic, which provided for its 
defence. 

The negotiations at Geertruidenberg dragged on until July, 1710, 
and were finally broken off owing to the insistence of the Dutch 
envoys. Buys and Van Dussen, upon conditions which, even in her 
exhausted state, France was too proud to concede. Meanwhile 
Marlborough and Eugene, unable to tempt Villars to risk a battle, 
contented themselves with a succession of sieges. Douay, Bethune, | 
St Venant and Aine fell, one after the other, the French army 
keeping watch behind its strongly fortified lines. This was a very 
meagre result, but Marlborough now felt his position to be so 
insecure that he dared not take any risks. His wife, so long omnipotent 
at court, had been supplanted in the queen's favour ; Godolphin and 
the Whig party had been swept from power ; and a Tory ministry 
bent upon peace had taken their place. Marlborough knew that his 
period of dictatorship was at an end, and he would have resigned 
his command but for the pressing instances of Eugene, Heinsius 
and other leaders of the allies. 

The desire of the Tory ministry to bring the long drawn-out 
hostilities to an end was accentuated by the death, on April 17, 171 1 , 
of the Emperor Joseph, an event which left his brother Charles heir 
to all the possessions of the Austrian Habsburgs. The Grand 
Alliance had been formed and the war waged to maintain the 
balance of power in Europe. But such a result would not be 
achieved by a revival of the empire of Charles V in the person of 
the man who had now become the head of the House of Austria. 
Even had the Whigs remained in office, they could hardly have 
continued to give active support to the cause of the Habsburg 
claimant in Spain. 

One of the consequences of the death of Joseph I, then, was to 
render the Tory minister, Henry St John, more anxious to enter 
into negotiations for peace ; another was the paralysing of active 
operations in the field. Eugene had been summoned to Germany 
to watch over the meeting of the Imperial Diet at Frankfort, and 
Marlborough was left with an army considerably inferior in numbers 
to that of his opponent Villars. Thus the only fruit of the campaign 
was the capture of Bouchain. Meanwhile the French minister Torcy 
entered into secret communications with St John, intimating that 
France was ready to negotiate directly with England, but at first 



AND THE TREATIES OF UTRECHT, 1702-1715 295 

without the cognisance of the States. The EngHsh ministry on their 
part, under the influence of St John, showed themselves to be ready 
to throw over their alUes, to abandon the Habsburg cause in Spain, 
and to come to an agreement with France on terms advantageous 
to England. For French diplomacy, always alert and skilful, these 
proceedings were quite legitimate ; but it was scarcely honourable 
for the EngHsh government, while the Grand Alliance was still in 
existence, to carry on these negotiations in profound secrecy. 

In August matters had so far advanced that Mesnager was 
sent over from Paris to London entrusted with definite proposals. 
In October the preliminaries of peace were virtually settled between 
the two powers. Meanwhile the Dutch had been informed through 
Lord Strafford, the English envoy at the Hague, of what was going 
on ; and the news aroused no small indignation and alarm. But great 
pressure was brought to bear upon them ; and, knowing that without 
England they could not continue the war, the States- General at 
last, in fear for their barrier, consented, on November 21, to send 
envoys to a peace congress to be held at Utrecht on the basis of 
the Anglo-French preliminaries. It was in vain that the Emperor 
Charles VI protested both at London and the Hague, or that Eugene 
was despatched on a special mission to England in January, 17 12. 
The English ministry had made up their minds to conclude peace 
with or without the emperor's assent ; and the congress opened at 
the beginning of the year 171 2 without the presence of any Austrian 
plenipotentiaries, though they appeared later. The Dutch provinces 
sent two envoys each. The conferences at Utrecht were, however, 
little more than futile debates; and the congress was held there 
rather as a concession to save the amour propre of the States than 
to settle the terms of peace. The real negotiations were carried on 
secretly between England and France ; and after a visit by St John, 
now Viscount Bolingbroke, in person to Paris in August, all points 
of difference between the two governments were amicably arranged. 
Spain followed the lead of France ; and the States, knowing that they 
could not go on with the war without England, were reluctantly 
obliged to accept the Anglo-French proposals. Their concurrence 
might not have been so easily obtained, but for the unfortunate 
course of the campaign of 171 2. Marlborough had now been 
replaced in the chief command by the Duke of Ormonde. Eugene, 
counting upon English support, had taken Quesnoy on July 4, and 



296 WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION 

was about to invest Landrecies, when Ormonde informed him that 
an armistice had been concluded betw^een the French and English 
governments. On July 16 the English contingent withdrew to 
Dunkirk, which had been surrendered by the French as a pledge 
of good faith. Villars seized the opportunity to make a surprise 
attack on the isolated Dutch at the bridge of Denain (July 24) and, 
a panic taking place, completely annihilated their whole force of 
12,000 men with slight loss to himself. Eugene had to retreat, 
abandoning his magazines ; and Douay, Quesnoy and Bouchain fell 
into the hands of the French marshal. 

These disasters convinced the Dutch of their helplessness when 
deprived of English help; and instructions were given to their 
envoys at Utrecht, on December 29, to give their assent to the terms 
agreed upon and indeed dictated by the governments of England 
and France. Making the best of the situation, the Dutch statesmen, 
confronted with the growing self-assertion of the French pleni- 
potentiaries, concluded, on January 30, 1713, a new offensive and 
defensive alliance with England. This treaty of alliance is commonly 
called the Second Barrier Treaty, because it abrogated the Barrier 
Treaty of 1709, and was much more favourable to France. It was 
not until all these more or less secret negotiations were over that 
the Congress, after being suspended for some months, resumed its 
sittings at Utrecht. The Peace of Utrecht which ensued is really a 
misnomer. No general treaty was agreed upon and signed, but a 
series of separate treaties between the belligerent powers. This was 
what France had been wishing for some time and, by the connivance 
of England, she achieved it. The treaty between these two countries 
was signed on April 11, 171 3 ; and such was the dominant position 
of England that her allies, with the single exception of the emperor, 
had to follow her lead. Treaties with the States- General, with Savoy, 
Brandenburg and Portugal, were all signed on this same day. 

Louis XIV had good right to congratulate himself upon ob- 
taining far more favourable terms than he could have dared to 
hope in i7ioor 1711. Philip V was recognised as King of Spain 
and the Indies, but had solemnly to renounce his right of succession 
to the French throne and his claim to the Spanish possessions in the 
Netherlands and in Italy. The treaty between England and Spain 
was signed on July 13, 1713 ; that between the States-General and 
Spain was delayed until June 26, 17 14, owing to the difficulties 



■ 



AND THE TREATIES OF UTRECHT, 1703-1715 297 

raised by the emperor, who, though deserted by his allies, continued 
the war single-handed, but with signal lack of success. He was 
forced to yield and make peace at Rastatt in a treaty, which was con- 
firmed by the Imperial Diet at Baden in Switzerland on September 
7, 1 7 14. By this treaty the French king retained practically all his 
conquests, while Charles VI, though he did not recognise the title 
of Philip V, contented himself with the acquisition of the " Spanish " 
Netherlands, and of the Milanese and Naples. Into the details of 
these several treaties it is unnecessary here to enter, except in so 
far as they affected the United Provinces. The power that benefited 
more than any other was Great Britain, for the Peace of Utrecht 
laid the foundation of her colonial empire and left her, from this 
time forward, the first naval and maritime power in the world. 
Holland, though her commerce was still great and her colonial 
possessions both rich and extensive, had henceforth to see herself 
more and more overshadowed and dominated by her former rival. 
Nevertheless the treaties concluded by the States- General at this 
time were decidedly advantageous to the Republic. 

That with France, signed on April 11, 1713, placed the Spanish 
Netherlands in the possession of the States- General, to be held by 
them in trust for Charles VI until such time as the emperor came to 
an agreement with them about a "Barrier." France in this matter 
acted in the name of Spain, and was the intermediary through whose 
good offices Spanish or Upper Gelderland was surrendered to 
Prussia. Most important of all to the Dutch was the treaty with 
the emperor concluded at Antwerp, November 15, 171 5. This is 
generally styled the Third Barrier Treaty, the First being that of 
1709, the Second thai of 17 13 at Utrecht. The States- General 
finally obtained what was for their interest a thoroughly satisfactory 
settlement. They obtained the right to place garrisons amounting 
in all to 35,000 men in Furnes,Warneton, Ypres, Knocke,Tournay, 
Menin and Namur ; and three-fifths of the cost were to be borne by 
the Austrian government, who pledged certain revenues of their 
newly-acquired Belgic provinces to the Dutch for the purpose. The 
strong position in which such a treaty placed the Republic against 
aggression, either from the side of France or Austria, was made 
stronger by being guaranteed by the British government. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE STADHOLDERLESS REPUBLIC, 1715-1740 

The thirty-four years which followed the Peace of Utrecht are a 
period of decadence and decay ; a depressing period exhibiting the 
spectacle of a State, which had played a heroic part in history, 
sinking, through its lack of inspiring leadership and the crying 
defects inherent in its system of government, to the position of a 
third-rate power. The commanding abilities of the great stadholders 
of the house of Orange-Nassau, and during the stadholderless 
period which followed the untimely death of William II, those of 
the Council-Pensionary, lohn de Witt, had given an appearance 
of solidarity to what was really a loose confederation of sovereign 
provinces. Throughout the 17th century maritime enterprise, naval 
prowess and world-wide trade had, by the help of skilled diplomacy 
and wise statesmanship, combined to give to the Dutch Republic 
a weight in the council of nations altogether disproportionate to its 
size and the number of its population. In the memorable period of 
Frederick Henry the foundations were laid of an empire overseas ; 
Dutch seamen and traders had penetrated into every ocean and had 
almost monopolised the carrying-trade of Europe ; and at the same 
time Holland had become the chosen home of scholarship, science, 
literature and art. In the great days of John de Witt she contended 
on equal terms with England for the dominion of the seas ; and 
Amsterdam was the financial clearing-house of the world. To 
William III the Republic owed its escape from destruction in 
the critical times of overwhelming French invasion in 1672, when 
by resolute and heroic leadership he not only rescued the United 
Provinces from French domination, but before his death had raised 
them to the rank of a great power. Never did the prestige of the 
States stand higher in Europe than at the opening of the i8th 
century. But, as has already been pointed out, the elevation of the 
great stadholder to the throne of England had been far from an 
unmixed blessing to his native land. It brought the two maritime 
and commercial rivals into a close alliance, which placed the smaller 



THE STADHOLDERLESS REPUBLIC, 1715-1740 299 

and less favoured country at a disadvantage, and ended in the 
weaker member of the alliance becoming more and more the 
dependent of the stronger. What would have been the trend of 
events had William survived for another ten or fifteen years or had 
he left an heir to succeed him in his high dignities, one can only 
surmise. It may at least be safely said, that the treaty which ended 
the war of the Spanish succession would not have been the treaty 
of Utrecht. 

William III by his will made his cousin, John William Friso of 
Nassau-Siegen, his heir. Friso (despite the opposition of the Prussian 
king, who was the son of Frederick Henry's eldest daughter) 
assumed the title of Prince of Orange ; and, as he was a real Nether- 
lander, his branch of the house of Nassau having been continuously 
stadholders of Friesland since the first days of the existence of the 
Republic, he soon attracted to himself the affection of the Orangist 
party. But at the time of William Ill's death Friso was but fourteen 
years of age; and the old '' States" or *' Republican" party, which 
had for so many years been afraid to attempt any serious opposition 
to the imperious will of King William, now saw their opportunity 
for a return once more to the state of things established by the 
Great Assembly in 1651. Under the leadership of Holland five 
provinces now declared for a stadholderless government. The 
appointment of town-councillors passed into the hands of the 
corporations or of the Provincial Estates, not, however, without 
serious disturbances in Gelderland, Utrecht, Overyssel and also 
in Zeeland, stirred up partly by the old regent-families, who 
had been excluded from office under William, partly by the gilds 
and working folk, who vainly hoped that they would be able to 
exercise a larger share in the government. In many places faction- 
fights ensued. In Amersfoort two burghers were tried and beheaded ; 
in Nijmwegen the burgomaster, Ronkens, met the same fate. But 
after a short while the aristocratic States party everjrwhere gained 
control in the town-corporations and through them in the 
Provincial Estates. In Zeeland the dignity of " first noble " was 
abolished. 

The effecJt of all this was that decentralisation reached its extreme 
point. Not only were there seven republics, but each town asserted 
sovereign rights, defying at times the authority of the majority in 
the Provincial Estates. This was especially seen in the predominant 



300 THE STADHOLDERLESS REPUBLIC, 1715-1740 

province of Holland, where the city of Amsterdam by its wealth 
and importance was able to dictate its will to the Estates, and 
through the Estates to the States- General. Money-making and 
trade profits were the matters which engrossed everybody's interest. 
War interfered with trade ; it was costly, and was to be avoided 
at any price. During this time the policy of the Republic was 
neutrality; and the States-General, with their army and navy 
reduced more and more in numbers and efficiency, scarcely counted 
in the calculations of the cabinets of Europe. 

But this very time that was marked by the decline and fall of 
the Republic from the high position which it occupied during the 
greater part of the 17th century, was the golden age of the burgher- 
oligarchies. A haughty ''patrician" class, consisting in each place 
of a very limited number of families, closely inter-related, had little 
by little possessed themselves, as a matter of hereditary right, of 
all the offices and dignities in the town, in the province and in the 
state. Within their own town they reigned supreme, filling up 
vacancies in the vroedschap by co-option, exercising all authority, 
occupying or distributing among their relatives all posts of profit, 
and acquiring great wealth. Their fellow-citizens were excluded 
from all share in aflFairs, and were looked down upon as belonging 
to an inferior caste. The old simple habits of their forefathers were 
abandoned. French fashions and manners were the vogue amongst 
them, and English clothes, furniture and food. In the country — 
platteland — the people had no voice whatever in public affairs ; they 
were not even represented, as the ordinary townspeople were by 
their regents. Thus the United Netherlands had not only ceased 
to be a unified state in any real sense of the word, but had ceased 
likewise to be a free state. It consisted of a large number of semi- 
independent oligarchies of the narrowest description ; and the great 
mass of its population was deprived of every vestige of civic rights. 

That such a State should have survived at all is to be explained 
by the fact that the real control over the foreign policy of the 
Republic and over its general government continued to be exer- 
cised by the band of experienced statesmen who had served under 
William III and inherited his traditions. Heinsius, the wise and 
prudent council-pensionary, continued in office until his death on 
August 3, 1720, when he was succeeded by Isaac van Hoornbeck, 
pensionary of Rotterdam. Hoornbeck was not a man of great parts, 



THE STADHOLDERLESS REPUBLIC, 1715-1740 301 

but he was sound and safe and he had at his side Simon van 
Slingelandt, secretary of the Council of State since 1690, and others 
whose experience in public office dated from the preceding century. 
In their hands the external policy of the Republic, conducted with 
no lack of skill, was of necessity non-interventionist. In internal 
matters they could effect little. The finances after the war were in 
an almost hopeless condition, and again and again the State was 
threatened with bankruptcy. To make things worse an epidemic of 
wild speculation spread far and wide during the period 171 6-1720 
in the bubble companies, the Mississippi Company and the South 
Sea Company, associated with the name of Edward Law, which 
proved so ruinous to many in England and France, as well as in 
Holland. In 171 6 such was the miserable condition of the country 
that the Estates of Overyssel, under the leadership of Count van 
Rechteren, proposed the summoning of a Great Assembly on the 
model of that of 165 1 to consider the whole question of government 
and finance. The proposal was ultimately accepted, and the 
Assembly met at the Hague on November 28. After nine months 
of ineffectual debate and wrangling it finally came to an end on 
September 14, 1717, without effecting anything, leaving all who 
had the best interests of the State at heart in despair. 

In the years immediately succeeding the Peace of Utrecht 
difficulties arose with Charles XII of Sweden, whose privateers had 
been seizing Dutch and English merchantmen in the Baltic. Under 
De Witt or William III the fleet of the Republic would speedily 
have brought the Swedish king to reason. But now other counsels 
prevailed. Dutch squadrons sailed into the Baltic with instructions 
to convoy the merchant vessels, but to avoid hostilities. With some 
difficulty this purpose was achieved ; and the death of Charles at 
the siege of Frederikshald brought all danger of war to an end. And 
yet in the very interests of trade it would have been good policy 
for the States to act strongly in this matter of Swedish piracy 
in the Baltic. Russia was the rising power in those regions. The 
Dutch had really nothing to fear from Sweden, whose great 
days came to an end with the crushing defeat of Charles XII at 
Pultova in 1709. Trade relations had been opened between Holland 
and Muscovy so early as the end of the i6th century ; and, despite 
English rivalry, the opening out of Russia and of Russian trade had 
been almost entirely in Dutch hands during the 17th century. 



302 THE STADHOLDERLESS REPUBLIC, 1715-1740 

The relations between the two countries became much closer and 
more important after the accession of the enterprising and reforming 
Tsar, Peter the Great. It is well known how Peter in 1696 visited 
Holland to learn the art of ship-building and himself toiled as a 
workman at Zaandam. As a result of this visit he carried back with 
him to Russia an admiration for all things Dutch. He not only 
favoured Dutch commerce, but he employed numbers of Hollanders 
in the building and training of his fleet and in the construction of 
waterways and roads. In 17 16-17 Peter again spent a considerable 
time in Holland. Nevertheless Dutch policy was again timid and 
cautious ; and no actual alliance was made with Russia, from dread 
of entanglements, although the opportunity seemed so favourable. 
It was the same when in this year 17 17 Cardinal Alberoni, at the 
instigation of Elizabeth of Parma the ambitious second wife of 
Philip V, attempted to regain Spain's lost possessions in Italy by 
an aggressive policy which threatened to involve Europe in war. 
Elizabeth's object was to obtain an independent sovereignty for her 
sons in her native country. Austria, France and England united to 
resist this attempt to reverse the settlement of Utrecht, and the 
States were induced to join with them in a quadruple alliance. It 
was not, however, their intention to take any active part in the 
hostilities which speedily brought Spain to reason, and led to the 
fall of Alberoni. But the Spanish queen had not given up her 
designs, and she found another instrument for carrying them out 
in Ripperda, a Groningen nobleman, who had originally gone to 
Spain as ambassador of the States. This able and scheming states- 
man persuaded Elizabeth that she might best attain her ends by an 
alliance with Austria, which was actually concluded at Vienna on 
April I, 1725. This alliance alarmed France, England and Prussia, 
but was especially obnoxious to the Republic, for the emperor had 
in 1722 erected an East India Company at Ostend in spite of the 
prohibition placed by Holland and Spain in the treaties of 1 714-15 
upon Belgian overseas commerce. By the Treaty of Alliance in 1725 
the Spanish crown recognised the Ostend Company and thus gave 
it a legal sanction. The States therefore, after some hesitation, 
became parties to a defensive alliance against Austria and Spain 
that had been signed by France, England and Prussia at Hanover in 
September, 1728. These groupings of the powers were of no long 
duration. The emperor, fearing an invasion of the Belgian provinces, 



THE STADHOLDERLESS REPUBLIC, 171 5-1740 303 

first agreed to suspend the Ostend Company for seven years, and 
then, in order to secure the assent of the maritime powers to the 
Pragmatic Sanction, which guaranteed to his daughter, Maria 
Theresa, the succession to the Austrian hereditary domains, he 
broke with Spain and consented to suppress the Ostend Company 
altogether. The negotiations which took place at this time are very 
involved and complicated, but they ended in a revival of the old 
alliance between Austria and the maritime powers against the two 
Bourbon monarchies of France and Spain. This return to the old 
policy of William III was largely the work of Slingelandt, who had 
become council-pensionary on July 27, 1727. 

Simon van Slingelandt, with the able assistance of his brother- 
in-law Francis Fagel, clerk of the States- General, was during the 
nine years in which he directed the foreign policy of the Republic 
regarded as one of the wisest and most trustworthy, as he was the 
most experienced statesman of his time. His aim was, in co-operation 
with England, to maintain by conciliatory and peaceful methods the 
balance of power. Lord Chesterfield, at that time the British envoy 
at the Hague, had the highest opinion of Slingelandt's powers ; and 
the council- pensionary's writings, more especially his Pensees 
impartiales, published in 1729, show what a thorough grasp he had 
of the political situation. Fortunately the most influential ministers 
in England and France, Robert Walpole and Cardinal Fleury, were 
like-minded with him in being sincere seekers after peace. The 
Treaty of Vienna (March 18, 173 1), which secured the recognition 
by the powers of the Pragmatic Sanction, was largely his work ; and 
he was also successful in preventing the question of the Polish 
succession , after the death of Augustus of Saxony in 1733 , being the 
cause of the outbreak of a European war. In domestic policy 
Slingelandt, though profoundly dissatisfied with the condition of 
the Republic, took no steps to interfere with the form of govern- 
ment. He saw the defects of the stadholderless system plainly 
enough, but he had not, like Fagel, strong Orangist sympathies ; 
and on his appointment as council- pensionary he pledged himself 
to support during his tenure of ofiice the existing state of things. 
This undertaking he loyally kept, and his strong personality during 
his life-time alone saved Holland, and through Holland the entire 
Republic, from falling into utter ruin and disaster. At his death 
Antony van der Heim became council- pensionary under the same 



304 THE STADHOLDERLESS REPUBLIC, 171 5-1740 

conditions as his predecessor. But Van der Heim, though a capable 
and hard-working official, was not of the same calibre as Slingelandt. 
The narrow and grasping burgher-regents had got a firm grip of 
power, and they used it to suppress the rights of their fellow- 
citizens and to keep in their own hands the control of municipal 
and provincial affairs. Corruption reigned everywhere; and the 
patrician oligarchy, by keeping for themselves and their relations all 
offices of profit, grew rich at the same time that the finances of the 
State fell into greater confusion. It was not a condition of things 
that could endure, should any serious crisis arise. 

John William Friso, on whom great hopes had been fixed, met 
with an untimely death in 171 1, leaving a posthumous child who 
became William IV, Prince of Orange. Faithful Friesland immedi- 
ately elected William stadholder under the regency of his mother, 
Maria Louisa of Hesse- Cassel. By her fostering care the boy 
received an education to fit him for service to the State. Though 
of weakly bodily frame and slightly deformed, William had marked 
intelligence, and a very gentle and kindly disposition. Though brave 
like all his family, he had little inclination for military things. The 
Republican party had little to fear from a man of such character 
and disposition. The burgher-regents, secure in the possession of 
power, knew that the Frisian stadholder was not likely to resort 
either to violence or intrigue to force on a revolution. Nevertheless 
the prestige of the name in the prevailing discontent counted for 
much. William was elected stadholder of Groningen in 171 8, of 
Drente and of Gelderland in 1722, though in each case with 
certain restrictions. But the other provinces remained obstinate in 
their refusal to admit him to any place in their councils or to any 
military post. The Estates of Zeeland went so far as to abolish the 
marquisate of Flushing and Veere, which carried with it the dignity 
of first noble and presidency in the meetings of the Estates, and 
offered to pay 100,000 fl. in compensation to the heir of the Nassaus. 
William refused to receive it, saying that either the marquisate did 
not belong to him, in which case he could not accept money for it, 
or it did belong to him and was not for sale. William's position was 
advanced by his marriage in 1734 to Anne, eldest daughter of 
George II. Thus for the third time a Princess Royal of England 
became Princess of Orange. The reception of the newly married 
pair at Amsterdam and the Hague was, however, cool though polite ; 



THE STADHOLDERLESS REPUBLIC, 1715-1740 305 

and despite the representatives of Gelderland, who urged that the 
falling credit and bad state of the Republic required the appointment 
of an ** eminent head," Holland, Utrecht, Zeeland and Overyssel 
remained obdurate in their refusal to change the form of govern- 
ment. William had to content himself with the measure of power he 
had obtained and to await events. He showed much patience, for 
he had many slights and rebuffs to put up with. His partisans would 
have urged him to more vigorous action, but this he steadily refused 
to take. 

The Republic kept drifting meanwhile on the downward path. Its 
foreign policy was in nerveless hands ; jobbery was rampant ; trade 
and industry declined ; the dividends of the East India Company 
fell year by year through the incompetence and greed of officials 
appointed by family influence; the West India Company was- 
practically bankrupt. Such was the state of the country in 1740,. 
when the outbreak of the Austrian Succession War found the 
Republic without leadership, hopelessly undecided what course of 
action it should take, and only seeking to evade its responsibilities. 



E. H.H. 20 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION WAR. 
WILLIAM IV, 1740-1751 

The death of the Emperor Charles VI in October, 1740, was the 
signal for the outbreak of another European war. All Charles* 
efforts on behalf of the Pragmatic Sanction proved to have been 
labour spent in vain. Great Britain, the United Provinces, Spain, 
Saxony, Poland, Russia, Sardinia, Prussia, most of the smaller 
German States, and finally France, had agreed to support (1738) 
the Pragmatic Sanction. The assent of Spain had been bought by 
the cession of the two Sicilies ; of France by that of Lorraine, whose 
Duke Francis Stephen had married Maria Theresa and was 
compensated by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany for the loss of his 
ancestral domain. The only important dissentient was Charles 
Albert, Elector of Bavaria, who had married the younger daughter 
of Joseph I and who claimed the succession not only through his 
wife, but as the nearest male descendant of Ferdinand I. On the 
death of Charles VI, then, it might have been slipposed that Maria 
Theresa would have succeeded to her inheritance without opposition. 
This was far from being the case. The Elector of Bavaria put forward 
his claims and he found unexpected support in Frederick II of 
Prussia. Frederick had just succeeded his father Frederick William I, 
and being at once ambitious and without scruples he determined to 
seize the opportunity for the purpose of territorial aggression. While 
lulling the suspicions of Vienna by friendly professions, he sud- 
denly, in December, 1740, invaded Silesia. Maria Theresa appealed 
to the guarantors of the Pragmatic Sanction. She met no active 
response, but on the part of Spain, Sardinia and France veiled 
hostility. Great Britain, at war with Spain since 1739, and fearing 
the intervention of France, confined her efforts to diplomacy; and 
the only anxiety of the United Provinces was to avoid being drawn 
into war. An addition was made to the army of 11,000 men and 
afterwards in 1741, through dread of an attack on the Austrian 
Netherlands, a further increase of 20,000 was voted. The garrisons 



WILLIAM IV, 1740-175 1 307 

and fortifications of the barrier towns were strengthened and some 
addition was made to the navy. But the policy of the States continued 
to be vacillating and pusillanimous. The Republican party, who 
held the reins of power, desiring peace at any price, were above all 
anxious to be on good terms with France. The Orangist opposition 
were in favour of joining with England in support of Maria Theresa ; 
but the prince would not take any steps to assert himself, and his 
partisans, deprived of leadership, could exert little influence. Nor 
did they obtain much encouragement from England, where Walpole 
was still intent upon a pacific policy. 

The events of 1741, however, were such as to compel a change 
of attitude. The Prussians were in possession of Silesia ; and spolia- 
tion, having begun so successfully, became infectious. The aged 
Fleury was no longer able to restrain the war party in France. In 
May at Nymphenburg a league was formed by France, Spain, 
Sardinia, Saxony and Poland, in conjunction with Prussia and 
Bavaria, to effect the overthrow of Maria Theresa and share her 
inheritance between them. Resistance seemed hopeless. A Franco- 
Bavarian army penetrated within a few miles of Vienna, and then 
overran Bohemia. Charles Albert was crowned King of Bohemia at 
Prague and then (January, 1742) was elected Emperor under the 
title of Charles VII. 

Before this election took place, however, English mediation had 
succeeded by the convention of Klein-Schnellendorf in securing a 
suspension of hostilities (October 9) between Austria and Prussia. 
This left Frederick in possession of Silesia, but enabled the Queen 
of Hungary, supported by English and Dutch subsidies, not only 
to clear Bohemia from its invaders, but to conquer Bavaria. At the 
very time when Charles Albert was elected Emperor, his own capital 
was occupied by his enemies. In February, 1742, the long ministry 
of Walpole came to an end ; and the party in favour of a more active 
participation in the war succeeded to office. George II was now 
thoroughly alarmed for the safety of his Hanoverian dominions; 
and Lord Stair was sent to the Hague on a special mission to urge 
the States to range themselves definitely on the side of Maria 
Theresa. But fears of a French onslaught on the southern Nether- 
lands still caused timorous counsels to prevail. The French 
ambassador, De Fenelon, on his part was lavish in vague promises 
not unmingled with veiled threats, so that the feeble directors of 



20 — 2 



3o8 THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION WAR 

Dutch policy, torn between their duty to treaty obligations urged 
upon them by England, and their dread of the military power of 
France, helplessly resolved to cling to neutrality as long as possible. 
But events proved too strong for them. Without asking their 
permission, an English force of 16,000 men landed at Ostend and 
was sent to strengthen the garrison of the barrier fortresses (May, 
1 742). The warlike operations of this year were on the whole favour- 
able to Maria Theresa, who through English mediation, much against 
her will, secured peace with Prussia by the cession of Silesia. The 
treaty between the two powers was signed at Berlin on July 28. Hosti- 
lities with France continued ; but, though both the Maritime Powers 
helped Austria with subsidies, neither Great Britain nor the States 
were at the close of the year officially at war with the French king. 

Such a state of precarious make-believe could not last much 
longer. The Austrians were anxious that the English force in the 
Netherlands, w^hich had been reinforced and was known as the 
Pragmatic Army^ should advance into Bavaria to co-operate with 
the Imperial forces. Accordingly the army, commanded by George 
II in person, advanced across the Main to Dettingen. Here the king, 
shut in by French forces and cut off from his supplies, was rescued 
from a very difficult position by the valour of his troops, who on 
June 27, 1743 attacked and completely routed their opponents. The 
States- General had already, on June 22, recognised their responsi- 
bilities ; and by a majority vote it was determined that a force of 
20,000 men under the command of Count Maurice of Nassau- 
Ouwerkerk should join the Pragmatic Army. 

The fiction that the Maritime Powers were not at war with France 
was kept up until the spring of 1744, when the French king in 
alliance with Spain declared war on England. One of the projects 
of the war party at Versailles was the despatch of a powerful 
expedition to invade England and restore the Stewarts. As soon as 
news of the preparations reached England, a demand was at once 
made, in accordance with treaty, for naval aid from the States. 
Twenty ships were asked for, biit only eight were in a condition to 
sail ; and the admiral in command. Grave, was 73 years of age and 
had been for fifteen years in retirement. What an object lesson of 
the utter decay of the Dutch naval power ! Fortunately a storm dis- 
persed the French fleet, and the services of the auxiliary squadron 
were not required. 



WILLIAM IV, 1740-1751 309 

The news that Marshal Maurice de Saxe was about to invade 
the Austrian Netherlands with a French army of 80,000 men came 
like a shock upon the peace party in the States. The memory of 
1672 filled them with terror. The pretence of neutrality could no 
longer be maintained. The choice lay between peace at any price 
or war with all its risks ; and it was doubtful which of the two alter- 
natives was the worse. Was there indeed any choice? It did not 
seem so, when De Fenelon, who had represented France at the 
Hague for nineteen years, came to take leave of the States- General 
on his appointment to a command in the invading army (April 26). 
But a last effort was made. An envoy-extraordinary, the Count of 
Wassenaer-Twickel, was sent to Paris, but found that the king was 
already with his army encamped between Lille and Tournay. 
Wassenaer was amused with negotiations for awhile, but there was 
no pause in the rapid advance of Marshal Saxe. The barrier 
fortresses, whose defences had been neglected, fell rapidly one after 
another. All west Flanders was overrun. The allied forces, gathered 
at Oudenarde, were at first too weak to offer resistance, and were 
divided in counsels. Gradually reinforcements came in, but still the 
Pragmatic army remained inactive and was only saved from in- 
evitable defeat by the invasion of Alsace by the Imperialists. 
Marshal Saxe was compelled to despatch a considerable part of 
the invading army to meet this attack on the eastern frontier, and 
to act on the defensive in Inlanders. Menin, Courtrai, Ypres, 
Knocke and other places remained, however, in French hands. 

All this time the Dutch had maintained the fiction that the States 
were not at war with France; but in January, 1745, the pressure 
of circumstances was too strong even for the weak-kneed Van der 
Heim and his fellow-statesmen, and a quadruple alliance was 
formed between England, Austria, Saxony and the United Provinces 
to maintain the Pragmatic Sanction. This was followed in March 
by the declaration of war between France and the States. Meanwhile 
the position of Austria had improved. The Emperor Charles VII 
died on January 20 ; and his youthful successor Maximilian Joseph, 
in return for the restoration of his electorate, made peace with Maria 
Theresa and withdrew all Bavarian claims to the Austrian succession. 
Affairs in Flanders however did not prosper. The command-in- 
chief of the allied army had been given to the Duke of Cumber- 
land, who was no match for such an opponent as Maurice de 



310 THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION WAR 

Saxe. The Prince of Waldeck was in command of the Dutch 
contingent. 

The provinces of Friesland, Groningen, Overyssel and Gelder- 
land had repeatedly urged that this post should be bestowed upon 
the Prince of Orange; and the States- General had in 1742 offered ■ 
to give William the rank of lieutenant-general in the army, but™ 
Holland and Zeeland steadily refused. The campaign of 1745 was 
disastrous. The battle of Fontenoy (May 11) resulted in a victory 
for Marshal Saxe over the allied forces, a victory snatched out of 
the fire through the pusillanimous withdrawal from the fight of the 
Dutch troops on the left wing. The British infantry with magnificent 
valour on the right centre had pierced through the French lines, 
only to find themselves deserted and overwhelmed by superior 
forces. This victory was vigorously followed up. The Jacobite rising 
under Charles Edward, the young Pretender, had necessitated the 
recalling not only of the greater part of the English expeditionary 
force, but also, under the terms of the treaties between Great 
Britain and the United Provinces, of a body of 6000 Dutch. Before 
the year 1745 had ended, Tournay, Ghent, Bruges, Oudenarde, 
Dendermonde, Ostend, Nieuport, Ath fell in succession into the 
hands of Marshal Saxe, and after a brave defence Brussels itself 
was forced to capitulate on February 19, 1746. 

Van der Heim and the Republican conclave in whose hands was 
the direction of foreign affairs, dreading the approach of the French 
armies to the Dutch frontier, sent the Count de Larrey on a private 
mission to Paris in November, 1745, to endeavour to negotiate terms 
of peace. He was unsuccessful ; and in February, 1746 another fruit- 
less effort was made, Wassenaer and Jacob Gilles being the envoys. 
The French minister, D'Argenson, was not unwilling to discuss 
matters with them ; and negotiations went on for some time in a more 
or less desultory way, but without in any way checking the alarming 
progress of hostilities. An army 120,000 strong under Marshal Saxe 
found for some months no force strong enough to resist it. Antwerp, 
Louvain, Mechlin, Mons, Charleroi, Huy and finally Namur 
(September 21) surrendered to the French. At last (October 11) 
a powerful allied army under the command of Charles of Lorraine 
made a stand at Roucoux. A hardly-fought battle, in which both 
sides lost heavily, ended in the victory of the French. Liege was 
taken, and the French were now masters of Belgium. 



WILLIAM IV, 1740-1751 311 

These successes made the Dutch statesmen at the Hague the 
more anxious to conclude peace. D'Argenson had always been 
averse to an actual invasion of Dutch territory ; and it was arranged 
between him and the Dutch envoys, Wassenaer and Gilles, at Paris, 
and between the council-pensionary Van der Heim and the Abbe 
de la Ville at the Hague, that a congress should meet at Breda in 
August, in which England consented to take part. Before it met, 
however. Van der Heim had died (August 15). He was succeeded 
by Jacob Gilles. The congress was destined to make little progress, 
for several of the provinces resented the way in which a small 
handful of men had secretly been committing the Republic to the 
acceptance of disadvantageous and humiliating terms of peace, with- 
out obtaining the consent of the States- General to their proposals. 
The congress did not actually assemble till October, and never got 
further than the discussion of preliminaries, for the war party won 
possession of power at Paris, and Louis XV dismissed D'Argenson. 
Moderate counsels were thrown to the winds ; and it was determined 
in the coming campaign to carry the war into Dutch territory. 

Alarm at the threatening attitude of the French roused the allies 
to collect an army of 90,000 men, of whom more than half were 
Austrian ; but, instead of Charles of Lorraine, the Duke of Cumber- 
land was placed in command. Marshal Saxe, at the head of the main 
French force , held Cumberland in check, while he despatched Count 
Lowenthal with 20,000 to enter Dutch Flanders. His advance was 
a triumphal progress. Sluis, Cadsand and Axel surrendered almost 
without opposition. Only the timely arrival of an English squadron 
in the Scheldt saved Zeeland from invasion. 

The news of these events caused an immense sensation. For 
some time popular resentment against the feebleness and jobbery 
of the stadholderless government had been deep and strong. 
Indignation knew no bounds ; and the revolutionary movement to 
which it gave rise was as sudden and complete in 1747 as in 1672. 
All eyes were speedily turned to the Prince of Orange as the saviour 
of the country. The movement began on April 25 at Veere and 
Middelburg in the island of Walcheren. Three days later the Estates 
of the Province proclaimed the prince stadholder and captain- 
and admiral- general of Zeeland. The province of Holland, where 
the stadholderless form of government was so deeply rooted and 
had its most stubborn and determined supporters, followed the 



312 THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION WAR 

example of Zeeland on May 3 , Utrecht on May 5 , and Overyssel on 
May 10. The States- General appointed him captain- and admiral- 
general of the Union. Thus without bloodshed or disturbance of 
any kind or any personal effort on the part of the prince, he found 
himself by general consent invested with all the posts of dignity and 
authority which had been held by Frederick Henry and William III. 
It was amidst scenes of general popular rejoicing that William 
visited Amsterdam, the Hague and Middelburg, and prepared to 
set about the difficult task to which he had been called. 

One of the first results of the change of government was the 
closing of the Congress of Breda. There was no improvement, 
however, in the military position. The allied army advancing under 
Cumberland and Waldeck, to prevent Marshal Saxe from laying 
siege to Maestricht, was attacked by him at Lauffeldt on July 2. The 
fight was desperately contested, and the issue was on the whole in 
favour of the allies, when at a critical moment the Dutch gave way ; 
and the French were able to claim, though at very heavy cost, a 
doubtful victory. It enabled Saxe nevertheless to despatch a force 
under Lowenthal to besiege the important fortress of Bergen-op- 
Zoom. It was carried by assault on September 16, and with it the 
whole of Dutch Brabant fell into the enemy's hands. 

Indignation against the rule of the burgher-regents, which had 
been instrumental in bringing so many disasters upon the Republic, 
was very general ; and there was a loudly expressed desire that the 
prince should be invested with greater powers, as the ''eminent 
head " of the State. With this object in view, on the proposal of the 
nobles of Holland, the Estates of that province made the dignity 
of stadholder and of captain- and admiral- general hereditary in 
both the male and female lines. All the other provinces passed 
resolutions to the same effect; and the States- General made the 
offices of captain- and admiral-general of the Union also here- 
ditary. In the case of a minority, the Princess- Mother was to be 
regent ; in that of a female succession the heiress could only marry 
with the consent of the States, it being provided that the husband 
must be of the Reformed religion, and not a king or an elector. 

Strong measures were taken to prevent the selling of offices and 
to do away with the system of farming out the taxes. The post- 
masterships in Holland, which produced a large revenue, were 
offered to the prince ; but, while undertaking the charge, he desired 



WILLIAM IV, 1740-1751 313 

that the profits should be applied to the use of the State. Indeed 
they were sorely needed, for though William would not hear of 
peace and sent Count Bentinck to England to urge a vigorous 
prosecution of the war in conjunction with Austria and Russia in 
1748, promising a States contingent of 70,000 men, it was found 
that, when the time for translating promises into action came, 
funds were wanting. Holland was burdened with a heavy debt ; and 
the contributions of most of the provinces to the Generality were 
hopelessly in arrears. In Holland a "voluntary loan" was raised, 
which afterwards extended to the other provinces and also to the 
Indies, at the rate of i per cent, on properties between 1000 fl. and 
2000 fl. ; of 2 per cent, on those above 2000 fl. The loan {mildegift) 
produced a considerable sum, about 50,000,000 fl. ; but this was not 
enough, and the prince had the humiliation of writing and placing 
before the EngHsh government the hopeless financial state of the 
Republic, and their need of a very large loan, if they were to take 
any further part in the war. This pitiful revelation of the condition 
of their ally decided Great Britain to respond to the overtures for 
peace on the part of France. The representatives of the powers met 
at Aix-la-Chapeile ; and, as the English and French were both 
thoroughly tired of the war, they soon came to terms. The pre- 
liminaries of peace between them were signed on April 30, 1748, on 
the principle of a restoration of conquests. In this treaty of Aix-la- 
Chapelle the United Provinces were included, but no better proof 
could be aflPorded of the low estate to which the Dutch Republic 
had now fallen than the fact that its representatives at Aix-la- 
Chapelle, Bentinck and Van Haren, were scarcely consulted and 
exercised practically no influence upon the decisions. The French 
evacuated the southern Netherlands in return for the restoration 
to them of the colony of Cape Breton, which had fallen into the 
hands of the English ; and the barrier towns were again allowed to 
receive Dutch garrisons. It was a useless concession, for their 
fortifications had been destroyed, and the States could no longer 
spare the money to make them capable of serious defence. 

The position of William IV all this time was exceptionally 
responsible, and therefore the more trying. Never before had any 
Prince of Orange been invested with so much power. The glamour 
attaching to the name of Orange was perhaps the chief asset of the 
new stadholder in facing the serious difficulties into which years 



314 THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION WAR. 

of misgovernment had plunged the country. He had undoubtedly 
the people at his back, but unfortunately they expected an almost 
magical change would take place in the situation with his elevation 
to the stadholderate. Naturally they were disappointed. The revo- 
lution of 1747 was not carried out in the spirit of "thorough,'* 
which marked those of 161 8, 1650 and 1672. William IV was cast 
in a mould different from that of Maurice or William II, still more 
from that of his immediate predecessor William III. He was a man 
of wide knowledge, kindly, conciliatory, and deeply religious, but 
only a mediocre statesman. He was too undecided in his opinions, 
too irresolute in action, to be a real leader in a crisis. 

The first business was to bring back peace to the country ; and 
this was achieved, not by any influence that the Netherlands govern- 
ment was able to exercise upon the course of the negotiations at 
Aix-la-Chapelle, but simply as a part of the understanding arrived 
at by Great Britain and France. It was for the sake of their own 
security that the English plenipotentiaries were willing to give up 
their conquests in North ^\merica as compensation for the evacua- 
tion of those portions of Belgium and of the Republic that the 
French forces occupied, and the restoration of the barrier fortresses. 

After peace was concluded, not only the Orange partisans but 
the great mass of the people, who had so long been excluded from 
all share of political power, desired a drastic reform of the govern- 
ment. They had conferred sovereign authority upon William, and 
would have willingly increased it, in the hope that he would in his 
person be a centre of unity to the State, and would use his power 
for the sweeping away of abuses. It was a vain hope. He never 
attempted to do away, root and branch, with the corrupt municipal 
oligarchies, but only to make them more tolerable by the infusion 
of a certain amount of new blood. 

The birth of an heir on March 8, 1748, caused great rejoicings, for 
it promised permanence to the new order of things. Whatever the 
prince had firmly taken in hand would have met with popular 
approval, but William had little power of initiative or firmness of 
principle. He allowed his course of action to be swayed now by one 
set of advisers, now by their opponents. Even in the matter of the 
farmers of the revenue, the best-hated men throughout the Republic 
and especially in Holland, it required popular tumults and riots at 
Haarlem, Leyden, the Hague and Amsterdam, in which the houses 



WILLIAM IV, 1740-1751 315 

of the obnoxious officials were attacked and sacked, to secure the 
abolition of a system by which the proceeds of taxation were diverted 
from the service of the State to fill the pockets of venal and corrupt 
officials. In Amsterdam the spirit of revolt against the domination 
of the Town Council by a few patrician families led to serious 
disorders and armed conflicts in which blood was shed; and in 
September, 1748, the prince, at the request of the Estates, visited 
the turbulent city. As the Town Council proved obstinate in 
refusing to make concessions, the stadholder was compelled to 
take strong action. The Council was dismissed from office, but here, 
as elsewhere, the prince was averse from making a drastic purge ; 
out of the thirty-six members, more than half, nineteen, were 
restored. The new men, who thus took their seats in the Town 
Council, obtained the sobriquet of "Forty-Eighters." 

The state of both the army and navy was deplorable at the end 
of the war in which the States had played so inglorious a part. 
William had neither the training nor the knowledge to undertake 
their reorganisation. He therefore sought the help of Lewis Ernest, 
Duke of Brunswick-Wolf enbiittel (1718-86), who, as an Austrian 
field-marshal, had distinguished himself in the war. Brunswick 
was with difficulty persuaded, in October, 1749, to accept the post 
of Dutch field-marshal, a salary of 6o,ooofl. being guaranteed to him, 
the governorship of Hertogenbosch, and the right to retain his 
rank in the Austrian army. The duke did not actually arrive in 
Holland and take up his duties until December, 1750. 

The prince's efforts to bring about a reform of the Admiralties, 
to make the Dutch navy an efficient force and to restore the 
commerce and industries of the country were well meant, but were 
marred by the feebleness of his health. All through the year 1750 
he had recurring attacks of illness and grew weaker. On October 22, 
1 75 1, he died. It is unfair to condemn William IV because he did 
not rise to the height of his opportunities. When in 1747 power was 
thrust upon him so suddenly, no man could have been more earnest 
in his wish to serve his country. But he was not gifted with the 
great abilities and high resolve of William III ; and there can be no 
doubt that the difficulties with which he had to contend were 
manifold, complex and deep-rooted. A valetudinarian like William 
IV was not fitted to be the physician of a body-politic suffering 
from so many diseases as that of the United Provinces in 1747. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE REGENCY OF ANNE AND OF BRUNSWICK, 

1751-1766 



On the death of William IV, his widow, Anne of England, was 
at once recognised as regent and guardian of her son William V. 
Bentinck and other leaders of the Orangist party took prompt 
measures to secure that the hereditary rights of the young prince 
did not suffer by his father's early death. During the minority 
Brunswick was deputed to perform the duties of captain-general. 
The new regent was a woman of by no means ordinary parts. In 
her domestic life she possessed all the virtues of her mother. Queen 
Caroline ; and in public affairs she had been of much help to her 
husband and was deeply interested in them. She was therefore in 
many ways well-fitted to undertake the serious responsibilities 
that devolved upon her, but her good qualities were marred by 
a self-willed and autocratic temperament, which made her resent 
any interference with her authority. William Bentinck, who was 
wont to be insistent with his advice, presuming on the many 
services he had rendered, the Duke of Brunswick, and the council- 
pensionary Steyn,were all alike distrusted and disliked by her. Her 
professed policy was not to lean on any party, but to try and hold 
the balance between them. Unfortunately William IV, after the 
revolution of 1747, had allowed his old Frisian counsellors (with 
Otto Zwier van Haren at their head) to have his ear and to exercise 
an undue influence upon his decisions. This Frisian court-cabal 
continued to exercise the same influence with Princess Anne ; and 
the Hollanders not unnaturally resented it. For Holland, as usual, 
in the late war had borne the brunt of the cost and had a debt of 
70,000,000 fl. and an annual deficit of 28,000,000 fl. The council- 
pensionary Steyn was a most competent financier, and he with 
Jan Hop, the treasurer- general of the Union, and with William 
Bentinck, head and spokesman of the nobles in the Estates of 
Holland, were urgent in impressing upon the Regent the crying 
need of retrenchment. Anne accepted their advice as to the means 



1 



THE REGENCY OF ANNE 317 

by which economies might be effected and a reduction of expenses 
be brought about. Among these was the disbanding of some of the 
military forces, including a part of the body-guard. To this the 
regent consented, though characteristically without consulting 
Brunswick. The captain-general felt aggrieved, but allowed the 
reduction to be made without any formal opposition. No measure, 
however, of a bold and comprehensive financial reform, like that 
of John de Witt a century earlier, was attempted. 

The navy had at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle been in an even 
worse condition than the army; and the stadholder, as admiral- 
general, had been urging the Admiralties to bestir themselves and 
to make the fleet more worthy of a maritime power. But William's 
premature death brought progress to a standstill ; and it is note- 
worthy that such was the supineness of the States- General in 1752 
that, while Brunswick was given the powers of captain-general, 
no admiral-general was appointed. The losses sustained by the 
merchants and ship-owners through the audacity of the Algerian 
pirates roused public opinion, however; and in successive years 
squadrons were despatched to the Mediterranean to bring the sea- 
robbers to reason. Admiral Boudaen in 1755 contented himself with 
the protection of the merchantmen, but Wassenaer in 1756 and 
1757 was more aggressive and compelled the Dey of Algiers to make 
terms. 

Meanwhile the rivalry between France and England on the one 
hand, and between Austria and Prussia on the other, led to the 
formation of new alliances, and placed the Dutch Republic in a 
difficult position. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was but an armed 
truce. The French lost no time in pushing forward ambitious 
schemes of colonial enterprise in North America and in India. 
Their progress was watched with jealous eyes by the English ; and 
in 1755 war broke out between the two powers. The Republic was 
bound to Great Britain by ancient treaties ; but the activities of the 
French ambassador, D'Affry, had been successful in winning over 
a number of influential Hollanders and also the court- cabal to be 
inclined to France and to favour strict neutrality. The situation 
was immensely complicated by the alliance concluded between 
Austria and France on May i, 1756. 

This complete reversal of the policy, which from the early years 
of William HI had grouped England, Austria and the States in 



3i8 THE REGENCY OF ANNE 

alliance against French aggression, caused immense perturbation 
amongst the Dutch statesmen. By a stroke of the pen the Barrier 
Treaty had ceased to exist, for the barrier fortresses were henceforth 
useless. The English ambassador, Yorke, urged upon the Dutch 
government the treaty right of Great Britain to claim the assistance 
of 6000 men and twenty ships ; Austria had the able advocacy of 
D'Affry in seeking to induce the States to become parties to the 
Franco- Austrian alliance. The regent, though an English princess, 
was scarcely less zealous than were the council- pensionary Steyn, 
Brunswick and most of the leading burgher-regents in desiring to 
preserve strict neutrality. To England the answer was made that 
naval and military help were not due except in case of invasion. 
The French had meanwhile been offering the Dutch considerable 
commercial privileges in exchange for their neutrality, with the 
result that Dutch merchantmen were seized by the English cruisers 
and carried into English ports to be searched for contraband. 

The princess had a very difficult part to play. Delegations of 
merchants waited upon her urging her to exert her influence with 
the English government not to use their naval supremacy for the 
injury of Dutch trade. Anne did her best, but without avail. 
England was determined to stop all commercial intercourse between 
France and the West Indies. Dutch merchantmen who attempted 
to supply the French with goods did so at their own risk. Four 
deputations from Amsterdam and the maritime towns waited upon 
the princess, urging an increase of the fleet as a protection against 
England. Other deputations came from the inland provinces, asking 
for an increase of the army against the danger of a French invasion. 
The French were already in occupation of Ostend and Nieuport, 
and had threatening masses of troops on the Belgian frontier. The 
regent, knowing on which side the peril to the security of the country 
was greatest, absolutely refused her consent to an increase of the 
fleet without an increase of the army. The Estates of Holland refused 
to vote money for the army ; and, having the power of the purse, 
matters were at a deadlock. The Republic lay helpless and 
without defence should its enemies determine to attack it. In the 
midst of all these difficulties and anxieties, surrounded by intrigues 
and counter-intrigues, sincerely patriotic and desirous to do her 
utmost for the country, but thwarted and distrusted on every side, 
the health of the regent, which had never been strong, gradually 



AND OF BRUNSWICK, 1751-1766 319 

gave way. On December 1 1 , 1758, she went in person to the States- 
General, "with tottering steps and death in her face," to endeavour 
to secure unity of action in the presence of the national danger, but 
without achieving her object. The maritime provinces were obdurate. 
Seeing death approaching, with the opening of the new year she 
made arrangements for the marriage of her daughter Caroline with 
Charles Christian, Prince of Nassau- Weilburg, and after com- 
mitting her two children to the care of the Duke of Brunswick (with 
whom she had effected a reconciliation) and making him guardian 
of the young Prince of Orange, Anne expired on January 12, 1759, 
at the early age of forty-nine. 

The task Brunswick had to fulfil was an anxious one, but by the 
exercise of great tact, during the seven years of William's minority, 
he managed to gather into his hands a great deal of the powers of 
a stadholder, and at the same time to ingratiate himself with the 
anti-Orange States party, whose power especially in Holland had 
been growing in strength and was in fact predominant. By politic 
concessions to the regents, and by the interest he displayed in the 
commercial and financial prosperity of the city of Amsterdam, that 
chief centre of opposition gave its support to his authority ; and 
he was able to do this while keeping at the same time on good terms 
with Bentinck, Steyn, Fagel and the Orange party. 

The political position of the United Provinces during the early 
part of the Brunswick guardianship was impotent and ignominious 
in the extreme. Despite continued protests and complaints, Dutch 
merchantmen were constantly being searched for contraband and 
brought as prizes into English ports ; and the lucrative trade that 
had been carried on between the West Indies and France in Dutch 
bottoms was completely stopped. Even the fitting out of twenty-one 
ships of the line, as a convoy, effected nothing, for such a force could 
not face the enormous superiority of the English fleet, which at that 
time swept the seas. The French ambassador, D'Affry, made most 
skilful use of his opportunities to create a pro- French party in 
Holland and especially in Amsterdam, and he was not unsuccessful 
in his intrigues. But the Dutch resolve to remain neutral at any cost 
remained as strong as ever, for, whatever might be the case with 
maritime Holland, the inland provinces shrank from running any 
risks of foreign invasion. When at last the Peace of Paris came in 1763, 
the representatives of the United Provinces, though they essayed to 



320 THE REGENCY OF BRUNSWICK 

play the part of mediators between the warring powers, no longer 
occupied a position of any weight in the councils of the European 
nations. The proud Republic, which had treated on equal terms with 
France and with Great Britain in the days of John de Witt and of 
William III, had become in the eyes of the statesmen of 1763 a 
negligible quantity. 

One of the effects of the falling-off in the overseas trade of 
Amsterdam was to transform this great commercial city into the 
central exchange of Europe. The insecurity of sea-borne trade 
caused many of the younger merchants to deal in money securities 
and bills of exchange rather than in goods. Banking houses sprang 
up apace, and large fortunes were made by speculative investments 
in stocks and shares ; and loans for foreign governments, large and 
small, were readily negotiated. This state of things reached its 
height during the Seven Years' War, but with the settlement which 
followed the peace of 1763 disaster came. On July 25 the chief 
financial house in Amsterdam, that of De Neufville, failed to meet 
its liabilities and brought down in its crash a very large number of 
other firms, not merely in Holland, but also in Hamburg and other 
places ; for a veritable panic was caused, and it was some time before 
stability could be restored. 

The remaining three years of the Brunswick regime were un- 
eventful in the home country. Differences with the English East 
India Company however led to the expulsion of the Dutch from 
their trading settlements on the Hooghley and Coromandel ; and in 
Berbice there was a serious revolt of the negro slaves, which, after 
hard fighting in the bush, was put down with much cruelty. The 
young Prince of Orange on the attainment of his eighteenth year, 
March 8, 1766, succeeded to his hereditary rights. His grandmother, 
Maria Louisa, to whose care he had owed much, had died on April 
9, in the previous year. During the interval the Princess Caroline 
had taken her place as regent in Friesland. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

WILLIAM V. FIRST PERIOD, 1 766-1 780 

Of all the stadholders of his line William V was the least dis- 
tinguished. Neither in appearance, character nor manner was he 
fitted for the position which he had to fill. He had been most 
carefully educated, and was not wanting in ability, but he lacked 
energy and thoroughness, and was vacillating and undecided at 
moments when resolute action was called for. Like his contem- 
porary Louis XVI, had he been born in a private station, he would 
have adorned it, but like that unhappy monarch he had none of the 
qualities of a leader of men in critical and difficult times. It was 
characteristic of him that he asked for confirmation from the 
Provincial Estates of the dignities and offices which were his by 
hereditary right. In every thing he relied upon the advice of the 
Duke of Brunswick, whose methods of government he implicitly 
followed. To such an extent was this the case that, soon after his 
accession to power, a secret Act was drawn up (May 3, 1766), 
known as the Act of Consultation, by which the duke bound 
himself to remain at the side of the stadholder and to assist him 
by word and deed in all affairs of State. During the earlier 
years therefore of William V's stadholderate he consulted Bruns- 
wick in every matter, and was thus encouraged to distrust his own 
judgment and to be fitful and desultory in his attention to affairs 
of State. 

One of the first of Brunswick's cares was to provide for the 
prince a suitable wife. William II, William III and William IV had 
all married English princesses, but the feeling of hostility to England 
was strong in Holland, and it was not thought advisable for the 
young stadholder to seek for a wife in his mother's family. The 
choice of the duke was the Prussian Princess Wilhelmina. The new 
Princess of Orange was niece on the paternal side of Frederick the 
Great and on the maternal side of the Duke of Brunswick himself. 
The marriagetook placeatBerlin on October4, 1767. The bride was 
but sixteen years of age, but her attractive manners and vivacious 

£. H. U. 21 



322 WILLIAM V. FIRST PERIOD, 1766-1780 

cleverness caused her to win the popular favour on her first entry 
into her adopted country. 

The first eight years of William's stadholdership passed by 
quietly. There is little to record. Commerce prospered, but the 
Hollanders were no longer content with commerce and aimed rather 
at the rapid accumulation of wealth by successful financial trans- 
actions. Stock-dealing had become a national pursuit. Foreign 
powers came to Amsterdam for loans ; and vast amounts of Dutch 
capital were invested in British and French funds and in the various 
German states. And yet all the time this rich and prosperous country 
was surrounded by powerful military and naval powers, and, having 
no strong natural frontiers, lay exposed defenceless to aggressive 
attack whether by sea or land. It was in vain that the stadholder, 
year by year, sent pressing memorials to the States- General urging 
them to strengthen the navy and the army and to put them on a 
war footing. The maritime provinces were eager for an increase 
of the navy, but the inland provinces refused to contribute their 
quota of the charges. Utrecht, Gelderland, Overyssel and Groningen 
on the other hand, liable as they were to suffer from military 
invasion, were ready to sanction a considerable addition to the land 
forces, but were thwarted by the opposition of Holland, Zeeland 
and Friesland. So nothing was done, and the Republic, torn by 
divided interests and with its ruling classes lapped in self-contented 
comfort and luxury, was a helpless prey that seemed to invite 
spoliation. 

This was the state of things when the British North American 
colonies rose in revolt against the mother-country. The sympathies 
of France were from the first with the colonials; and a body of 
volunteers raised by Lafayette with the connivance of the French 
government crossed the Atlantic to give armed assistance to the 
rebels. Scarcely less warm was the feeling in the Netherlands. The 
motives which prompted it were partly sentimental, partly practical. 
There was a certain similarity between the struggle for independ- 
ence on the part of the American colonists against a mighty state 
like Great Britain, and their own struggle with the world-power of 
Spain. There was also the hope that the rebellion would have the 
practical result of opening out to the Dutch merchants a lucrative 
trade with the Americans, one of whose chief grievances' against the 
mother-country had been the severity of the restrictions forbidding 



WILLIAM V. FIRST PERIOD, 1766-1780 323 

all trading with foreign lands. At the same time the whole air was 
full of revolutionary ideas, which were unsettling men's minds. This 
was no less the case in the Netherlands than elsewhere; and the 
American revolt was regarded as a realisation and vindication in 
practical .politics of the teaching of Montesquieu, Voltaire and 
Rousseau, whose works were widely read, and of the EngUshmen 
Hume, Priestley and Richard Price. Foremost among the pro- 
pagandists of these ideas were Jan Dirk van der Capellen tot de 
Pol, a nobleman of Overyssel, and the three burgomasters of 
Amsterdam, Van Berckel, De Vrij Temminck and Hooft, all anti- 
Orange partisans and pro-French in sentiment. Amidst all these 
contending factions and opinions, the State remained virtually 
without a head, William V drifting along incapable of forming an 
independent decision, or of making a firm and resolute use of the 
great powers with which he was entrusted. 

Tom by internal dissensions, the maintenance of neutrality by 
the Republic became even more difficult than in the Seven Years' 
War. The old questions of illicit trade with the enemy and the 
carrying of contraband arose. The Dutch islands of St Eustatius 
and Curacoa became centres of smuggling enterprise ; and Dutch 
merchant vessels were constantly being searched by the British 
cruisers and often carried off as prizes into English ports. Strong 
protests were made and great irritation aroused. Amsterdam was 
the chief sufferer. Naturally in this hot-bed of Republican opinion 
and French sympathies, the prince was blamed and was accused of 
preferring English interests to those of his own country. The arrival 
of the Duke de la Vauguyon, as French ambassador, did much to 
fan the flame. Vauguyon entered into close relations with the 
Amsterdam regents and did all in his power to exacerbate the 
growing feeUng of hostility to England, and to persuade the Republic 
to abandon the ancient alliance with that country in favour of one 
with France. 

The British ambassador, Yorke, lacked his ingratiating manners ; 
and his language now became imperative and menacing in face of 
the flourishing contraband trade that was carried on at St Eustatius. 
In consequence of his strong protest the governor of the island, 
Van Heyliger, was replaced by De Graeff, but it was soon dis- 
covered that the new governor was no improvement upon his 
predecessor. He caused additional offence to the British government 

3Z — 2 



324 WILLIAM V. FIRST PERIOD, 1766-1780 

by saluting the American flag on November 16, 1776. The threats of 
Yorke grew stronger, but with small result. The Americans con- 
tinued to draw supplies from the Dutch islands. The entry of 
France into the war on February 6, 1778, followed by that of Spain, 
complicated matters. England was now fighting with her back to 
the wall ; and her sea-power had to be exerted to its utmost to make 
head against so many foes. She waged relentless war on merchant 
ships carrying contraband or suspected contraband, whether enemy 
or neutral. At last money was voted under pressure from Amsterdam, 
supported by the prince, for the building of a fleet for protection 
against privateers and for purposes of convoy. But a fleet cannot be 
built in a day ; and, when Admiral van Bylandt was sent out in 1777, 
his squadron consisted of five ships only. Meanwhile negotiations 
with England were proceeding and resulted in certain concessions, 
consent being given to allow what was called "limited convoy." 
The States- General, despite the opposition of Amsterdam, 
accepted on November 13 , 1778, the proffered compromise. But the 
French ambassador Vauguyon supported the protest of Amsterdam 
by threatening, unless the States- General insisted upon complete 
freedom of trade, to withdraw the commercial privileges granted to 
the Republic by France. Finding that the States- General upheld 
their resolution of November 13, he carried his threat into execu- 
tion. This action brought the majority of the Estates of Holland 
to side with Amsterdam and to call for a repeal of the '* limited 
convoy" resolution. The English on their part, well aware of all this, 
continued to do their utmost to stop all supplies reaching their 
enemies in Dutch bottoms, convoy or no convoy. The British 
government, though confronted by so many foes, now took strong 
measures. Admiral van Bylandt, convoying a fleet of merchantmen 
through the Channel, was compelled by a British squadron to strike 
his flag ; and all the Dutch vessels were taken into Portsmouth. 
This was followed by a demand under the treaty of 1678 for Dutch 
aid in ships and men, or the abrogation of the treaty of alliance 
and of the commercial privileges it carried with it. Yorke gave the 
States- General three weeks for their decision ; and on April 17, 1779, 
the long-standing alliance, which William III had made the key- 
stone of his policy, ceased to exist. War was not declared, but 
the States- General voted for "unlimited convoy" on April 24; 
and every effort was made by the Admiralties to build and 



WILLIAM V. FIRST PERIOD, 1766-1780 325 

equip a considerable fleet. The reception given to the American 
privateer, Paul Jones, who, despite EngHsh protests, was not only- 
allowed to remain in Holland for three months, but was feted as 
a hero (October — December, 1779), accentuated the increasing 
alienation of the two countries. 

At this critical stage the difficult position of England was in- 
creased by the formation under the leadership of Russia of a League 
of Armed Neutrality. Its object was to maintain the principle of the 
freedom of the seas for the vessels of neutral countries, unless they 
were carrying contraband of war, i.e. military or naval munitions. 
Further a blockade would not be recognised if not effective. Sweden 
and Denmark joined the league ; and the Empress Catherine invited 
the United Provinces and several other neutral powers to do like- 
"wise. Her object w^as to put a curb upon what was described by 
Britain's enemies as the tyranny of the Mistress of the Seas. The 
Republic for some time hesitated. Conscious of their weakness at 
sea, the majority in the States- General were unwilling to take any 
overt steps to provoke hostihties, when an event occurred which 
forced their hands. 

In 1778 certain secret negotiations had taken place between the 
Amsterdam regents and the American representatives at Paris, 
Franklin and Lee. It chanced that Henry L^ss^eiice, a former 
President of the Congress, was on his way from New York to 
Amsterdam in September, 1780, for the purpose of raising a loan. 
Pursued by an English frigate, the ship on which he was sailing 
was captured off Newfoundland ; and among his papers were found 
copies of the negotiations of 1778 and of the correspondence which 
then took place. Great was the indignation of the British govern- 
ment, and it was increased when the Estates of Holland, under the 
influence of Amsterdam, succeeded in bringing the States- General 
(by a majority of four provinces to three) to join the League of 
Armed NeutraHty. Better open war than a sham peace. Instructions 
were therefore sent to the ambassador Yorke to demand the 
punishment of the Amsterdam regents for their clandestine trans- 
actions with the enemies of England. The reply was that the matter 
should be brought before the Court of Holland ; and Van Welderen, 
the Dutch ambassador in London, in vain endeavoured to give 
assurances that the States were anxious to maintain a strict neutrality. 
Yorke demanded immediate satisfaction and once more called 



326 WILLIAM V. FIRST PERIOD, 1766-1780 

upon the Republic to furnish the aid in men and ships in ac- 
cordance with the treaty. Further instructions were therefore sent 
to Van Welderen, but they were delayed by tempestuous weather. 
In any case they would have been of no avail. The British 
government was in no mood for temporising. On December 20, 
1780 war was declared against the United Provinces; and three 
days later Yorke left the Hague. 



CHAPTER XXV 

STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM V, continued, 1780-1788 

TttE outbreak of war meant the final ruin of the Dutch Republic. 
Its internal condition at the close of 1780 made it hopelessly un- 
fitted to enter upon a struggle with the overwhelming sea-power of 
England. Even had William V possessed the qualities of leadership, 
he would have had to contend against the bitter opposition and 
enmity of the anti-Orange party among the burgher-regents, of 
which Van der Capellen was one of the most moving spirits, 
and which had its chief centre in Amsterdam. But the prince, 
weak and incompetent, was apparently intent only on evading his 
responsibilities, and so laid himself open to the charges of neglect 
and mal-administration that were brought against him by his 
enemies. 

Against an English fleet of more than 300 vessels manned by a 
force of something like 100,000 seamen, the Dutch had but twenty 
ships of the line, most of them old and of little value. Large sums 
of money were now voted for the equipment of a fleet; and the 
Admiralties were urged to press forward the work with all possible 
vigour. But progress was necessarily slow. Everything was lacking — 
material,munitions, equipment, skilled labour — and these could not 
be supplied in time to prevent Dutch commerce being swept from 
the seas and the Dutch colonies captured. The Republicans, or 
Patriots, as they began to name themselves, were at first delighted 
that the Orange stadholder and his party had been compelled to 
break with England and to seek the alliance of France ; but their 
joy was but short-lived. Bad tidings followed rapidly one upon 
another. In the first month of the war 200 merchantmen were 
captured, of the value of 15,000,000 florins. The fishing fleets dared 
not put out to sea. In 1780 more than 2000 vessels passed through 
the Sound, in 1781 only eleven. On February 3 St Eustatius 
surrendered to Admiral Rodney, when one hundred and thirty 
merchantmen together with immense stores fell into the hands of 
the captors. Surinam and Cura9oa received warning and were able 



328 STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM V, 1780-1788 

to put themselves into a state of defence, but the colonies of 
Demerara, Berbice and Essequibo were taken, also St Martin, Saba 
and the Dutch establishments on the coast of Guinea. In the East 
Indies Negapatam and the factories in Bengal passed into English 
possession ; and the Cape, Java and Ceylon would have shared the 
same fate, but for the timely protection of a French squadron under 
the command of Suffren, one of the ablest and bravest of French 
seamen. 

The losses were enormous, and loud was the outcry raised in 
Amsterdam and elsewhere against the prince of being the cause of 
his country's misfortunes. "Orange," so his enemies said, "is to 
blame for everj^thing. He possessed the power to do whatsoever 
he would, and he neglected to use it in providing for the navy and 
the land's defences." This was to a considerable extent unjust, for 
William from 1767 onwards had repeatedly urged an increase of 
the sea and land forces, but his proposals had been thwarted by 
bitter opposition, especially in Amsterdam itself. The accusations 
were to this extent correct that he was undoubtedly invested with 
large executive power which he had not the strength of will to use. 
It was at this period that Van der Capellen and others started a 
most violent press campaign not only against the stadholder, but 
against the hereditary stadholdership and all that the house of 
Orange-Nassau stood for in the history of the Dutch Republic. 
Brunswick was attacked with especial virulence. The "Act of 
Consultation" had become known ; and, had the prince been willing 
to throw responsibility upon the duke for bad advice he might have 
gained some fleeting popularity by separating himself from the 
hated "foreigner." But William, weak though he was, would not 
abandon the man who in his youth had been to him and to his 
house a wise and staunch protector and friend ; and he knew, more- 
over, that the accusations against Brunswick were really aimed at 
himself. The duke, however, after appealing to the States- General, 
and being by them declared free from blame, found the spirit of 
hostility so strong at Amsterdam and in several of the Provincial 
Estates that he withdrew first (1782) to Hertogenbosch, of which 
place he was governor, and finally left the country in 1784. 

The war meanwhile, which had been the cause, or rather the 
pretext, for this outburst of popular feeling against Brunswick, was 
pursuing its course. In the summer of 1781 Rear- Admiral Zoutman, 



STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM V, 1780-1788 329 

at the head of a squadron of fifteen war-ships, was ordered to convoy 
seventy-two merchantmen into the Baltic. He met an EngHsh force 
of tW'clve vessels, which were larger and better armed than the 
Dutch, under Vice- Admiral Hyde Parker. A fierce encounter took 
place at the Doggerbank on August 5, which lasted all day \\athout 
either side being able to claim the victory. Parker was the first to 
retreat, but Zoutman had likewdse to return to the Texel to repair 
his disabled ships, and his convoy never reached the Baltic. The 
Dutch however were greatly elated at the result of the fight, and 
Zoutman and his captains were feted as heroes. 

Doggerbank battle was but, at the most, an indecisive engage- 
ment on a ver}^ small scale, and it brought no relaxation in the 
English blockade. No Dutch admiral throughout all the rest of the 
war ventured to face the English squadrons in the North Sea and 
in the Channel ; and the Dutch mercantile marine disappeared from 
the ocean. England was strong enough to defy the Armed Neutrality, 
which indeed proved, as its authoress Catherine II is reported to 
have said, "an armed nullity." There was deep dissatisfaction 
throughout the country, and mutual recriminations between the 
various responsible authorities, but there was some justice in making 
the stadholder the chief scapegoat, for, whatever may have been 
the faults of others, a \dgorous initiative in the earlier years of his 
stadholdership might have effected much, and would have certainly 
gained for him increased influence and respect. 

The war lasted for two years, if war that could be called in which 
there was practically no fighting. There were changes of govern- 
ment in England during that time, and the party of which Fox was 
the leader had no desire to press hardly upon the Dutch. Several 
efforts were made to induce them to negotiate in London a separate 
peace on favourable terms, but tlie partisans of France in Amsterdam 
and elsewhere rendered these tentative negotiations fruitless. Being 
weak, the Republic suffered accordingly by ha\ing to accept finally 
whatever terms its mightier neighbour thought fit to dictate. On 
November 30, 1782, the preliminary treaty by which Great Britain 
conceded to the United States of America their independence was 
concluded. A truce between Great Britain and France followed in 
January, 1783, in which the United Provinces, as a satelUte of 
France, were included. No further hostihties took place, but the 
negotiations for a definitive peace dragged on, the protests of the 



330 STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM V, 1780-1788 

Dutch plenipotentiaries at Paris against the terms arranged 
between England and France being of no avail. Finally the French 
government concluded a separate peace on September 3 ; but it was 
not till May 20, 1784, that the Dutch could be induced to surrender 
Negapatam and to grant to the English the right of free entry into 
the Moluccas. Nor was this the only humiliation the Republic 
had at this time to suffer, for during the course of the Eng- 
lish war serious troubles with the Emperor Joseph II had arisen. 

Joseph had in 1780 paid a visit to his Belgian provinces, and he 
had seen with his own eyes the ruinous condition of the barrier 
fortresses. On the pretext that the fortresses were now useless, since 
France and the Republic were allies, Joseph informed the States- 
General of his intention to dismantle them all with the exception 
of Antwerp and Luxemburg. This meant of course the withdrawal 
of the Dutch garrisons. The States- General, being unable to resist, 
deemed it the wiser course to submit. The troops accordingly left 
the barrier towns in January, 1782. Such submission, as was to 
be expected, inevitably led to further demands. 

The Treaty of Miinster (1648) had left the Dutch in possession 
of territory on both banks of the Scheldt, and had given them the 
right to close all access by river to Antwerp, which had for a century 
and a quarter ceased to be a sea-port. In 1781, during his visit to 
Belgium, Joseph had received a number of petitions in favour of the 
liberation of the Scheldt. At the moment he did not see his way to 
taking action, but in 1783 he took advantage of the embarrassments 
of the Dutch government to raise the question of a disputed 
boundary in Dutch Flanders ; and in the autumn of that year a body 
of Imperial troops took forcible possession of some frontier forts 
near Sluis. Matters were brought to a head in May, 1784, by the 
emperor sending to the States-General a detailed summary of all 
his grievances. Tableau sommaire des pretentions . In this he claimed, 
besides cessions of territory at Maestricht and in Dutch Flanders, 
the right of free navigation on the Scheldt, the demolition of the 
Dutch forts closing the river, and freedom of trading from the 
Belgian ports to the Indies. This document was in fact an ultimatum, 
the rejection of which meant war. For once all parties in the 
Republic were united in resistance to the emperor's demands ; and 
when in October, 1784, two ships attempted to navigate the Scheldt, 
the one starting from Antwerp, the other from Ostend, they were 



STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM V, 1780-1788 331 

both stopped ; the first at Saftingen on the frontier, the second at 
Flushing. War seemed imminent. An Austrian army corps was sent 
to the Netherlands ; and the Dutch bestirred themselves with a 
vigour unknown in the States for many years to equip a strong fleet 
and raise troops to repel invasion. It is, however, almost certain that, 
had Joseph carried out his threat of sending a force of 80,000 men 
to avenge the insult offered to his ships, the hastily enlisted Dutch 
troops would not have been able to offer effectual resistance. But 
the question the emperor was raising was no mere local question. 
He was really seeking to violate important clauses of two inter- 
national treaties, to which all the great powers were parties, the 
Treaty of Miinster and the Treaty of Utrecht. His own possession 
of the Belgian Netherlands and the independence and sovereign 
rights of the Dutch Republic rested on the same title. Joseph had 
counted upon the help or at least the friendly neutrality of his 
brother-in-law, Louis XVI, but France had just concluded an 
exhausting war in which the United Provinces had been her allies. 
The French, moreover, had no desire to see the Republic over- 
powered by an act of aggression that might give rise to European 
complications. Louis XVI offered mediation, and it was accepted. 

It is doubtful indeed whether the emperor, whose restless brain 
was always full of new schemes, really meant to carry his threats 
into execution. In the autumn of 1784 a plan for exchanging the 
distant Belgian Netherlands for the contiguous Electorate of Bavaria 
was beginning to exercise his thoughts and diplomacy. He showed 
himself therefore ready to make concessions ; and by the firmness 
of the attitude of France both the disputants were after lengthy 
negotiations brought to terms, which were embodied in a treaty 
signed at Fontainebleau on November 8, 1785. The Dutch retained 
the right to close the Scheldt, but had to dismantle some of the forts ; 
the frontier of Dutch Flanders was to be that of 1664 ; and Joseph 
gave up all claim to Maestricht in consideration of a payment of 
9,500,000 florins. A few days later an alliance between France and 
the Republic, known as "the Defensive Confederacy " of Fontaine- 
bleau, was concluded, the French government advancing 4,500,000 
florins towards the ransom of Maestricht. The return of peace, 
however, far from allaying the spirit of faction in the Republic, 
was to lead to civil strife. 

The situation with which William V now had to deal was in 



332 STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM V, 1780-1788 

some ways more difficult and dangerous than in the days of his 
greater predecessors. It was no longer a mere struggle for supremacy 
between the Orange- Stadholder party (prins-gezinden) and the 
patrician-regents of the town corporations (staats-gezinden) ; a third 
party had come into existence, the democratic or "patriot" party, 
which had imbibed the revolutionary ideas of Rousseau and others 
about the Rights of Man and the Social Contract. These new ideas, 
spread about with fiery zeal by the two nobles. Van der Capellen 
tot de Pol and his cousin Van der Capellen van den Marsch, had 
found a fertile soil in the northern Netherlands, and among all 
classes, including other nobles and many leading burgomasters. 
Their aim was to abolish all privileges whether in Church or 
State, and to establish the principle of the sovereignty of the 
people. These were the days, be it remembered, which immediately 
succeeded the American Revolution and preceded the summoning 
of the States- General in France with its fateful consequences. The 
atmosphere was full of revolution ; and the men of the new ideas 
had no more sympathy with the pretensions of an aristocratic caste 
of burgher-regents to exclude their fellow-citizens from a voice 
in the management of their own affairs, than they had with the quasi- 
sovereign position of an hereditary stadholder. Among the Orange 
party were few men of mark. The council-pensionary Bleiswijk 
was without character, ready to change sides with the shifting wind ; 
and Count Bentinck van Rhoon had little ability. They were, 
however, to discover in burgomaster Van de Spiegel of Goes a 
statesman destined soon to play a great part in the history of the 
country. During this period of acute party strife Patriot and Orange- 
man were not merely divided from one another on questions of 
domestic policy. The one party were strong adherents of the French 
alliance and leant upon its support ; the other sought to renew the 
bonds which had so long united the Republic with England. Indeed 
the able representatives of France and England at the Hague at this 
time, the Count de Verac and Sir James Harris (afterwards Lord 
Malmesbury), were the real leaders and advisers, behind the scenes, 
of the opposing factions. 

The strength of parties varied in the different provinces. Holland, 
always more or less anti-stadholder, was the chief centre of the 
patriots. With Holland were the majority of the Estates of Friesland, 
Groningen and Overyssel. In Utrecht the nobles and the regents 



STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM V, 1780-1788 333 

were for the stadholder, but the townsmen were strong patriots. 
Zeeland supported the prince, who had with him the army, the 
preachers and the great mass of small bourgeoisie and the country 
folk. Nothing could exceed the violence andunscrupulousnessof the 
attacks that were directed against the stadholder in the press ; and no 
efforts were spared by his opponents to curtail his rightS'-and to 
insult him personally. Corps of patriot volunteers were enrolled 
in different places with self-elected officers. The wearing of the 
Orange colours and the singing of the Wilhelmus was forbidden, and 
punished by fine and imprisonment. In September, 1785, a riot at 
the Hague led to the Estates of Holland taking from the stadholder 
the command of the troops in that city. They likewise ordered the 
foot-guards henceforth to salute the members of the Estates, and 
removed the arms of the prince from the standards and the facings 
of the troops. As a further slight, the privilege was given to the 
deputies, while the Estates were in session, to pass through the 
gate into the Binnenhof , which had hitherto been reserved for the 
use of the stadholder alone. Filled with indignation and resentment, 
William left the Hague with his family and withdrew to his country 
residence at Het Loo. Such a step only increased the confusion and 
disorder that was filling every part of the country, for it showed that 
William had neither the spirit nor the energy to make a firm stand 
against those who were resolved to overthrow his authority. 

In Utrecht the strife between the parties led to scenes of 
violence. The " patriots " found an eloquent leader in the person of 
a young student named Ondaatje. The Estates of the province 
were as conservative as the city of Utrecht itself was ultra- 
democratic ; and a long series of disturbances were caused by the 
burgher-regents of the Town Council refusing to accede to the 
popular demand for a drastic change in their constitution. Finally 
they were besieged in the town hall by a numerous gathering of the 
*' free corps " headed by Ondaatje, and were compelled to accede to 
the people's demands. A portion of the Estates thereupon assembled 
at Amersfoort ; and at their request a body of 400 troops were sent 
there from Nijmwegen. Civil war seemed imminent, but it was 
averted by the timely mediation of the Estates of Holland. 

Scarcely less dangerous was the state of affairs in Gelder- 
land. Here the Estates of the Gelderland had an Orange majority, 
but the patriots had an influential leader in Van der Capellen van 



334 STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM V, 1780-1788 

den Marsch. Petitions and requests were sent to the Estates 
demanding popular reforms. The Estates not only refused to receive 
them, but issued a proclamation forbidding the dissemination of 
revolutionary literature in the province. The small towns of Elburg 
and Hattem not only refused to obey, but the inhabitants proceeded 
by force to compel their Councils to yield to their demands. The 
Estates thereupon called upon the stadholder to send troops to 
restore order. This was done, and garrisons were placed in Elburg 
and Hattem. This step caused a very great commotion in Holland 
and especially at Amsterdam ; and the patriot leaders felt that the 
time had come to take measures by which to unite all their forces 
in the different parts of the country for common defence and 
common action. The result of all this was that the movement 
became more and more revolutionary in its aims. To such an extent 
was this the case that many of the old aristocratic anti-stadholder 
regents began to perceive that the carrying out of the patriots* 
programme of popular reform would mean the overthrow of the 
system of government which they upheld, at the same time as that 
of the stadholderate. 

The reply of the Estates of Holland to the strong measures taken 
against Elburg and Hattem was the "provisional" removal of the 
prince from the post of captain-general, and the recalling, on their 
own authority, of all troops in the pay of the province serving in the 
frontier fortresses (August, 1786). As the year went on the agitation 
grew in volume ; increasing numbers were enrolled in the free corps. 
The complete ascendancy of the ultra-democratic patriots was 
proved and assured by tumultuous gatherings at Amsterdam (April 
21, 1787), and a few days later at Rotterdam, compelling the Town 
Councils to dismiss at Amsterdam nine regents and at Rotterdam 
seven, suspected of Orange leanings. Holland was now entirely 
under patriot control; and the democrats in other districts were 
eagerly looking to the forces which Holland could bring into the 
field to protect the patriot cause from tyrannous acts of oppression 
by the stadholder 's troops. In the summer of 1787 the forces on 
both sides were being mustered on the borders of the province of 
Utrecht, and frequent collisions had already taken place. Nothing but 
the prince's indecision had prevented the actualoutbreakof a general 
civil war. At the critical moment of suspense an incident occurred, 
however, which was to effect a dramatic change in the situation. 



STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM V, 1780-1788 335 

William's pusillanimous attitude (he was actually talking of with- 
drawing from the country to Nassau) was by no means acceptable 
to his high-spirited wife. The princess was all for vigorous action, 
and she wrung from William a reluctant consent to her returning 
from Nijmwegen, where for security she had been residing with 
her family, to the Hague. In that political centre she would be in 
close communication with Sir J. Harris and Van de Spiegel, and 
would be able to organise a powerful opposition in Holland to 
patriot ascendancy. It was a bold move, the success of which largely 
depended on the secrecy with which it was carried out. On June 28 
Wilhelmina started from Nijmwegen, but the commandant of the 
free corps at Gouda, hearing that horses were being ordered at 
Schoonhoven and Haasrecht for a considerable party, immediately 
sent to headquarters for instructions. He was told not to allow any 
suspicious body of persons to pass. He accordingly stopped the 
princess and detained her at a farm until the arrival at Woerden of 
the members of the Committee of Defence. By these Her Highness 
was treated (on learning her quality) with all respect, but she was 
informed that she could not proceed without the permit of the 
Estates of Holland. The indignant princess did not wait for the 
permit to arrive, but returned to Nijmwegen. 

The British ambassador, Harris, at once brought the action of 
the Estates of Holland before the States- General and demanded 
satisfaction ; and on July 10 a still more peremptory demand was made 
by the Prussian ambassador, von Thulemeyer. Frederick William II 
was incensed at the treatment his sister had received ; and, when the 
Estates of Holland refused to punish the offending officials, on the 
ground that no insult had been intended, orders were immediately 
given for an army of 20,000 men under Charles, Duke of Brunswick, 
to cross the frontier and exact reparation. The Prussians entered 
in three columns and met with little opposition. Utrecht, where 
7000 " patriot " volunteers were encamped, was evacuated, the whole 
force taking flight and retreating in disorder to Holland. Gorkum, 
Dordrecht, Kampen and other towns surrendered without a blow ; 
and on September 17 Brunswick's troops entered the Hague amidst 
general rejoicings. The populace wore Orange favours, and the 
streets rang with the cry of Oranje hoven. Amsterdam still held out 
and prepared for defence, hoping for French succour; and thither 
the leaders of the patriot party had fled, together with the repre- 



336 STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM V, 1780-1788 

sentatives of six cities. The nobility, the representatives of eight 
cities, and the council-pensionary remained at the Hague, met as 
the Estates of Holland, repealed all the anti-Orange edicts, and 
invited the prince to return. Amidst scenes of great enthusiasm the 
stadholder made his entry into the Binnenhof on September 20. The 
hopes held by the patriot refugees at Amsterdam of French aid 
were vain, for the French government was in no position to help 
anyone. As soon as the Prussian army appeared before the gates, 
the Town Council, as in 1650, was unwilling to jeopardise the 
welfare of the city by armed resistance, and negotiations were 
opened with Brunswick. On October 3 Amsterdam capitulated, and 
the campaign was over. 

The princess was now in a position to demand reparation for 
the insult she had received ; and, though her terms were severe, the 
Estates of Holland obsequiously agreed to carry them out (October 6) • 
She demanded the punishment of all who had taken part in her 
arrest, the disbanding of the free corps, and the purging of the 
various Town Councils of obnoxious persons. All this was done. 
In the middle of November the main body of the Prussians 
departed, but a force of 4000 men remained to assist the Dutch 
troops in keeping order. The English ambassador, Harris, and Van 
de Spiegel were the chief advisers of the now dominant Orange 
government ; and drastic steps were taken to establish the hereditary 
stadholderate henceforth on a firm basis. All persons filling any 
office were required to swear to maintain the settlement of 1766, 
and to declare that "the high and hereditary dignities" conferred 
upon the Princes of Orange were "an essential part not only of the 
constitution of each province but of the whole State." An amnesty 
was proclaimed by the prince on November 21 , but it contained so 
many exceptions that it led to a large number of the patriots seeking 
a place of refuge in foreign countries, as indeed many of the leaders 
had already done, chiefly in France and the Belgian Netherlands. 
It has been said that the exiles numbered as many as 40,000, but 
this is possibly an exaggeration. The victory of the Orange party 
was complete ; but a triumph achieved by the aid of a foreign invader 
was dearly purchased. The Prussian troops, as they retired laden 
with booty after committing many excesses, left behind them a 
legacy of hatred. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE ORANGE RESTORATION. DOWNFALL OF THE 

REPUBLIC, 1788-1795 

One of the first steps taken, after the restoration of the stadholder's 
power had been firmly established, was the appointment of Laurens 
Pieter van de Spiegel to the post of council-pensionary of Holland 
in place of the trimmer Bleiswijk. It was quite contrary to usage 
that a Zeelander should hold this the most important post in the 
Estates of Holland, but the influence of the princess and of Harris 
secured his unanimous election onDecember3 , 1787. Van deSpiegel 
proved himself to be a statesman of high capacity, sound judgment 
and great moderation, not unworthy to be ranked among the more 
illustrious occupants of his great office. He saw plainly the hopeless 
deadlock and confusion of the machinery of government and its 
need of root-and-branch re\'ision, but he was no more able to 
achieve it than his predecessors. The feebleness of the stadholder, 
the high-handedness of the princess, and the selfish clinging of the 
patrician-regents to their privileged monopoly of civic power were 
insuperable hindrances to any attempts to interfere with the existing 
state of things. Such was the inherent weakness of the Republic 
that it was an independent State in little more than name ; its form 
of government was guaranteed by foreign powers on whom it had 
to rely for its defence against external foes. 

Prussia by armed force, England by diplomatic support, had 
succeeded in restoring the hereditary stadholderate to a pre- 
dominant position in the State. It was the first care of the triumvirate, 
Harris, Van de Spiegel and the princess, to secure what had been 
achieved by bringing about a defensive alHance bet\veen the 
Republic, Great Britain and Prussia. After what had taken place 
this was not a difficult task ; and two separate treaties were signed 
between the States- General and the two protecting powers on the 
same day, April 15, 1788, each of the three states undertaking to 
furnish a definite quota of troops, ships or money, if called upon to 
do so. Both Prussia and England gave a strong guarantee for the 

S. H. B. 22 



338 THE ORANGE RESTORATION 

upholding of the hereditary stadholderate. This was followed by 
the conclusion of an Anglo-Prussian alliance directed against France 
and Austria (August 13). The marriage of the hereditary prince with 
Frederika Louise Wilhelmina of Prussia added yet another to the 
many royal alliances of the House of Orange ; but, though it raised 
the prestige of the stadholder's position, it only served to make that 
position more dependent on the support of the foreigner. 

The council-pensionary, Van de Spiegel, did all that statesman 
could do in these difficult times to effect reforms and bring order 
out of chaos. It was fortunate for the Republic that the stadholder 
should have discerned the merits of this eminent servant of the 
state and entrusted to him so largely the direction of affairs. 
Internally the spirit of faction had, superficially at least, been 
crushed by Prussian military intervention, but externally there was 
serious cause for alarm. Van de Spiegel watched with growing 
disquietude the threatening aspect of things in France, preluding 
the great Revolution ; and still more serious was the insurrection, 
which the reforming zeal of Joseph II had caused to break out in 
the Austrian Netherlands. Joseph's personal visit to his Belgian 
dominions had filled him with a burning desire to sweep away the 
various provincial privileges and customs and to replace them by 
administrative uniformity. Not less was his eagerness to free 
education from clerical influence. He stirred up thereby the fierce 
opposition of clericals and democrats alike, ending in armed revolt 
in Brabant and elsewhere. A desultory struggle went on during the 
years 1787, '88 and '89, ending in January, 1790, in a meeting of 
the States-General at Brussels and the formation of a federal 
republic under the name of "the United States of Belgium." All 
this was very perturbing to the Dutch government, who were most 
anxious lest an Austrian attempt at reconquest might lead to a 
European conflict close to their borders. The death of Joseph on 
February 24, 1790, caused the danger to disappear. His brother, 
Leopold II, at once offered to re-establish ancient privileges, and 
succeeded by tact and moderation in restoring Austrian rule under 
the old conditions. That this result was brought about without any 
intervention of foreign powers was in no small measure due to a con- 
ference at the Hague, in which Van de Spiegel conducted negotia- 
tions with the representatives of Prussia, England and Austria for a 
settlement of the Belgian question without disturbance of the peace. 



DOWNFALL OF THE REPUBLIC, 1788-1795 339 

The council-pensionary found the finances of the country in a 
state of great confusion. One of his first cares was a re-assessment 
of the provincial quotas, some of which were greatly in arrears and 
inadequate in amount, thus throwing a disproportionate burden 
upon Holland. It was a difficult task, but successfully carried out. 
The affairs of the East and West India Companies next demanded 
his serious attention. Both of them were practically bankrupt. 

The East India Company had, during the i8th century, been 
gradually on the decline. Its object was to extract wealth from Java 
and its other eastern possessions ; and, by holding the monopoly of 
trade and compelling the natives to hand over to the Company's 
officials a proportion of the produce of the land at a price fixed by 
the Company far below its real value {contingent-en leverantie- 
stelsel), the country was drained of its resources and the inhabitants 
impoverished simply to increase the shareholder's dividends. This 
was bad enough, but it was made worse by the type of men whom 
the directors, all of whom belonged to the patrician regent-families, 
sent out to fill the posts of governor-general and the subordinate 
governorships. For many decades these officials had been chosen, 
not for their proved experience or for their knowledge of the East 
or of the Indian trade, but because of family connection ; and the 
nominees went forth with the intention of enriching themselves as 
quickly as possible. This led to all sorts of abuses, and the profits of 
the Company from all these causes kept diminishing. But, in order 
to keep up their credit, the Board of XVII continued to pay large 
dividends out of capital, with the inevitable result that the Company 
got into debt and had to apply for help to the State. The English 
war completed its ruin. In June, 1783, the Estates of Holland 
appointed a Commission to examine into the affairs of the Company. 
Too many people in Holland had invested their money in it, and 
the Indian trade was too important, for an actual collapse of the 
Company to be permitted. Accordingly an advance of 8,000,000 
florins was made to the directors, with a guarantee for 38,000,000 of 
debt. But things went from bad to worse. In 1790 the indebtedness 
of the Company amounted to 85,000,000 florins. Van de Spiegel 
and others were convinced that the only satisfactory solution would 
be for the State to dissolve the Company and take over the Indian 
possessions in full sovereignty at the cost of liquidating the debt. 
A commission was appointed in 1791 to proceed to the East and 

22 — 2 



340 THE ORANGE RESTORATION 

make a report upon the condition of the colonies. Before their 
mission was accomplished the French armies were overrunning the 
Republic. It was not till 1798 that the existence of the Company 
actually came to an end. To the West India Company the effect of 
the English war was likewise disastrous. The Guiana colonies, 
whose sugar plantations had been a source of great profit, had been 
conquered first by the English, then by the French ; and, though they 
were restored after the war, the damage inflicted had brought the 
Company into heavy difficulties. Its charter expired in 1791, and it 
was not renewed. The colonies became colonies of the State, the 
shareholders being compensated by exchanging their depreciated 
shares for Government bonds. 

The Orange restoration, however, and the efforts of Van de 
Spiegel to strengthen its bases by salutary reforms were doomed 
to be short-lived. The council-pensionary, in spite of his desire 
to relinquish office at the end of his quinquennial term, was re- 
elected by the Estates of Holland on December 6, 1792, and yielded 
to the pressure put upon him to continue his task. A form of govern- 
ment, which had been imposed against their will on the patriot 
party by the aid of foreign bayonets, was certain to have many 
enemies; and such prospect of permanence as it had lay in the 
goodwill and confidence inspired by the statesmanlike and con- 
ciliatory policy of Van de Spiegel. But it was soon to be swept away 
in the cataclysm of the French Revolution now at the height of its 
devastating course. 

In France extreme revolutionary ideas had made rapid headway, 
ending in the dethronement and imprisonment of the king on August 
10, 1792. The invasion of France by the Prussian and Austrian 
armies only served to inflame the French people, intoxicated by their 
new-found liberty, to a frenzy of patriotism. Hastily raised armies 
succeeded in checking the invasion at Valmy on September 20, 
1792; and in their turn invading Belgium under the leadership of 
Dumouriez, they completely defeated the Austrians at Jemappes on 
November 6. The whole of Belgium was overrun and by a decree 
of the French Convention was annexed. The fiery enthusiasts, into 
whose hands the government of the French Republic had fallen, 
were eager to carry by force of arms the principles of liberty, 
fraternity and equality to all Europe, declaring that ''all govern- 
ments are our enemies, all peoples are our friends." The southern 



DOWNFALL OF THE REPUBLIC, 1788-1795 341 

Netherlands having been conquered, it was evident that the northern 
Republic would speedily invite attack. The Dutch government, 
anxious to avoid giving any cause for hostilities, had carefully 
abstained from offering any encouragement to the emigrants or sup- 
port to the enemies of the French Republic. Van de Spiegel had 
even expressed to De Maulde, the French ambassador, a desire to 
establish friendly relations with the Republican government. But 
the Jacobins looked upon the United Provinces as the dependent 
of their enemies England and Prussia ; and, when after the execution 
of the king the English ambassador was recalled from Paris, the 
National Convention immediately declared war against England 
and at the same time against the stadholder of Holland "because 
of his slavish bondage to the courts of St James and Berlin." 

Dumouriez at the head of the French army prepared to enter 
the United Provinces at two points. The main body under his own 
command was to cross the Moerdijk to Dordrecht and then advance 
on Rotterdam, the Hague, Ley den and Haarlem. He was accom- 
panied by the so-called Batavian legion^ enlisted from the patriot 
exiles under Colonel Daendels, once the fiery anti-Orange advocate 
of Hattem. General Miranda, who was besieging Maestricht, was 
to march by Nijmwegen and Venloo to Utrecht. The two forces 
would then unite and make themselves masters of Amsterdam. The 
ambitious scheme miscarried. At first success attended Dumouriez. 
Breda fell after a feeble resistance, also De Klundert and Geer- 
truidenberg. Meanwhile the advance of an Austrian army under 
Coburg relieved Maestricht and inflicted a defeat upon the French 
at Aldenhoven on March i , 1793. Dumouriez, compelled to retreat, 
was himself beaten at Neerwinden on March 18, and withdrew to 
Antwerp. For the moment danger was averted. Revolutionary 
movements at Amsterdam and elsewhere failed to realise the hopes 
of the patriots, and the Dutch government was able to breathe again. 

It indeed appeared that the French menace need no longer be 
feared. Dumouriez changed sides and, failing to induce his troops 
to follow him, took refuge in the enemy's camp. A powerful 
coalition had now been formed by the energy of Pitt against 
revolutionary France ; and, in April, 1794, a strong English army 
under the Duke of York had joined Coburg. They were supported 
by 22,000 Dutch troops commanded by the two sons of the Prince 
of Orange. 



342 THE ORANGE RESTORATION 

New French armies, however, organised by the genius of Carnot, 
proved more than a match for the allied forces acting without any 
unity of place under slow-moving and incompetent leaders. Coburg 
and the Austrians were heavily defeated at Fleurus by Jourdan on 
June 26. York and Prince William thereupon retreated across the 
frontier, followed by the French under Pichegru, while another 
French general, Moreau, took Sluis and overran Dutch Flanders. 
This gave fresh encouragement to the patriot party, who in 
Amsterdam formed a revolutionary committee, of which the leaders 
were Gogel, Van Dam and Kraijenhoff. Nothing overt was done, 
but by means of a large number of so-called reading-societies 
{leesgezelschappen) secret preparations were made for a general 
uprising so soon as circumstances permitted, and communications 
were meanwhile kept up with the exiled patriots. But Pichegru, 
though he captured Maestricht and other towns, was very cautious 
in his movements and distrustful of the promises of the Amsterdam 
Convention that a general revolt would follow upon his entry into 
Holland. 

In this way the year 1794 drew to its end; and, as no further 
help from England or Prussia could be obtained, the States- General 
thought it might be possible to save the Republic from the fate of 
Belgium by opening negotiations for peace with the enemy. 
Accordingly two envoys, Brantsen and Repelaer, were sent 
on December 16 to the French headquarters, whence they 
proceeded to Paris. Fearing lest their plans for an uprising should 
be foiled, the Amsterdam committee also despatched two repre- 
sentatives, Blauw and Van Dam, to Paris to counteract the envoys 
of Van de Spiegel, and to urge upon the French commanders an 
immediate offensive against Holland. The withdrawal of the re- 
mains of the English army under the Duke of York, and the setting 
in of a strong frost, lent force to their representations. The army of 
Pichegru, accompanied by Daendels and his Batavian legion, were 
able to cross the rivers ; and Holland lay open before them. It was in 
vain that the two young Orange princes did their utmost to organise 
resistance. In January, 1795 one town after another surrendered; 
and on the 19th Daendels without opposition entered Amsterdam. 

The revolution was completely triumphant, for on this very day 
the stadholder, despite the protests of his sons and the efforts of the 
council-pensionary, had left the country. The English government 



DOWNFALL OF THE REPUBLIC, 1788-1795 343 

had offered to receive William V and his family ; and arrangements 
had been quietly made for the passage across the North Sea. The 
princess with her daughter-in-law and grandson were the first to 
leave ; and on January 17, 1795, William himself, on the ground that 
the French would never negotiate so long as he was in the country, 
bade farewell to the States- General and the foreign ambassadors. 
On the following day he embarked with his sons and household on 
a number of fishing-pinks at Scheveningen and put to sea. With 
his departure the stadholderate and the Republic of the United 
Netherlands came to an end. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC, 1795-1806 

On January 19, 1795, Amsterdam fell into the hands of the advancing 
French troops. Daendels had previously caused a proclamation 
to be distributed which declared *'that the representatives of the 
French people wished the Dutch nation to make themselves free ; 
that they do not desire to oppress them as conquerors, but to ally 
themselves with them as with a free people." A complete change 
of the city government took place without any disturbance or 
shedding of blood. At the summons of the Revolutionary Committee 
the members of the Town Council left the Council Hall and were 
replaced by twenty-one citizens "as provisional representatives of 
the people of Amsterdam." Of this body Rutger Jan Schimmel- 
penninck, a former advocate of the Council, was appointed 
president. The other towns, one after the other, followed in the 
steps of the capital. The patrician corporations were abolished and 
replaced by provisional municipal assemblies. Everywhere the 
downfall of the old regime wsls greeted with tumultuous joy by those 
large sections of the Dutch population which had imbibed revolu- 
tionary principles ; and the French troops were welcomed by the 
*' patriots*' as brothers and deliverers. "Trees of Liberty," painted 
in the national colours, were erected in the principal squares ; and the 
citizens, wearing " caps of liberty " danced round them hand in hand 
with the foreign soldiers. Feast-making, illuminations and passion- 
ate orations, telling that a new era of" liberty, fraternity and equality " 
had dawned for the Batavian people, were the order of the day. 
The Revolution was not confined to the town-corporations. At 
the invitation of the Amsterdam Committee and under the pro- 
tection of the French representatives, deputations from fourteen 
towns met at the Hague on January 26. Taking possession of the 
Assembly Hall of the Estates of Holland and choosing as their 
president Pieter Paulus, a man generally respected, this Provisional 
Assembly proceeded to issue a series of decrees subverting all the 
ancient institutions of the land. The representation by Estates and 



THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC 345 

the offices of stadholder and of council-pensionary were abolished. 
The old colleges such as the Commissioned Councillors, the 
Admiralties, the Chamber of Accounts, were changed into Com- 
mittees for General Welfare, for War, for Marine, for Finance, etc. 
The other provinces in turn followed Holland's example ; and the 
changes in the provincial administrations were then quickly 
extended to the States- General. These retained their name, but 
were now to be representative of the citizens of the whole land. 
The Council of State was transformed into a Committee for General 
Affairs ; and a Colonial Council replaced the East and West India 
Companies and the Society of Surinam. To the Committee for 
General Affairs was entrusted the task of drawing up a plan for the 
summoning of a National Convention on March 4. 

So far all had gone smoothly with the course of the revolutionary 
movement, so much so that its leaders seem almost to have for- 
gotten that the land was in the occupation of a foreign conqueror. 
The unqualified recognition of Batavian independence, however, 
in the proclamation by Daendels had caused dissatisfaction in 
Paris. The Committee of Public Safety had no intention of throwing 
away the fruits of victory ; and two members of the Convention, 
Cochon and Ramel, were despatched to Holland to report upon the 
condition of affairs. They arrived at the Hague on February 7. Both 
reports recommended that a war-indemnity should be levied on 
the Republic, but counselled moderation, for, though the private 
wealth of the Dutch was potentially large, the State was practically 
insolvent. These proposals were too mild to please the Committee 
of Public Safety. The new States- General had sent (March 3) two 
envoys. Van Blauw and Meyer, to Paris with instructions to propose 
a treaty of alliance and of commerce with France, to ask for the 
withdrawal of the French troops and that the land should not be 
flooded with assignats. The independence of the Batavian Republic 
was taken for granted. Very different were the conditions laid before 
them by Merlin de Douat, Rewbell and Sieyes. A war contribution 
of 100,000,000 florins was demanded, to be paid in ready money 
within three months, a loan of Uke amount at 3 per cent, and the 
surrender of all territory south of the Waal together with Dutch 
Flanders, Walcheren and South Beveland. Moreover there was to 
be no recognition of Batavian independence until a satisfactory 
treaty on the above lines was drawn up. 



346 THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC 

These hard conditions were on March 23 rejected by the States- 
General. Wiser counsels however prevented this point-blank refusal 
being sent to Paris, and it was hoped that a policy of delay might 
secure better terms. The negotiations went on slowly through 
March and April; and, as Blauw and Meyer had no powers as 
accredited plenipotentiaries, the Committee determined to send 
Rewbell and Sieyes to the Hague, armed with full authority to push 
matters through. 

The envoys reached the Hague on May 8, and found the States- 
General in a more yielding mood than might have been expected 
from their previous attitude. Rewbell and Sieyes knew how to play 
upon the fears of the Provisional Government by representing to 
them that, if the terms they offered were rejected, their choice lay 
between French annexation or an Orange restoration. Four members 
were appointed by the States- General with full powers to negotiate. 
The conferences began on May 1 1 ; and in five days an agreement 
was reached. The Batavian Republic, recognised as a free and inde- 
pendent State, entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with 
the French Republic. But the Dutch had to cede Maestricht, Venloo 
and Dutch Flanders and to pay an indemnity of 100,000,000 florins. 
Flushing was to receive a French garrison, and its harbour was to 
be used in common by the two powers ; 25,000 French troops were 
to be quartered in the Republic and were to be fed, clothed and 
paid. The Dutch were compelled to permit the free circulation of 
the worthless assignats in their country. 

One of the first results of this treaty was a breach with Great 
Britain. The Dutch coast was blockaded ; British fleets stopped all 
sea-borne commerce ; and the Dutch colonies in the East and West 
Indies were one after the other captured. The action of the Prince 
of Orange made this an easy task. William placed in the hands of 
the British commanders letters addressed to the governors of the 
Dutch colonies ordering them "to admit the troops sent out on 
behalf of his Britannic Majesty and to offer no resistance to the 
British warships, but to regard them as vessels of a friendly Power." 
The Cape of Good Hope surrendered to Admiral Rodney ; and in 
quick succession followed Malacca, Ceylon and the Moluccas. A 
squadron of nine ships under Rear- Admiral Lucas, sent out to re- 
cover the Cape and the other East Indian possessions, was compelled 
to surrender to the English in Saldanha Bay on August 17, 1796, 



THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC 347 

almost without resistance, owing to the Orange sympathies of the 
crews. The West Indian Colonies fared no better. Demerara, Esse- 
quibo and Berbice capitulated in the spring of 1796; Surinam re- 
mained in Dutch hands until 1799 ; Java until 180 1 . The occupation 
by the English of this island, the most important of all the Dutch 
overseas possessions, made the tale of their colonial losses complete. 
The offensive and defensive alliance with France had thus 
brought upon the Republic, as a trading and colonial power, a 
ruin which the efforts of the provisional government under 
French pressure to re-organise and strengthen their naval and 
military forces had been unable to prevent. The erstwhile exiles, 
Daendels and Dumonceau, who had attained the rank of generals 
in the French service, were on their return entrusted with the task 
of raising an army of 36,000 men, disciplined and equipped on the 
French system. The navy was dealt with by a special Committee, 
of which Pieter Paulus w^as the energetic president. Unfortunately 
for the Committee, a large proportion of the officers and crews were 
strongly Orangist. Most of the officers resigned, and it was necessary 
to purge the crews. Their places had to be supplied by less ex- 
perienced and trustworthy material; but Vice-Admiral Jan de 
Winter did his utmost to create a fleet in fit condition to join the 
French and Spanish fleets in convoying an expeditionary force to 
make a descent upon the coast of Ireland. In July, 1797, eighty 
ships were concentrated at the Texel with troops on board, ready 
to join the Franco- Spanish squadrons, which were to sail from 
Brest. But the junction was never effected. Week after week the 
Dutch admiral was prevented from leaving the Texel by contrary 
winds. The idea of an invasion of Ireland was given up, but so great 
was the disappointment in Holland and such the pressure exerted 
on De Winter by the Commission of Foreign Affairs, that he was 
obliged against his will to put to sea on October 7, and attack the 
English fleet under the command of Admiral Duncan, who was 
blockading the Dutch coast. The number of vessels on the two 
sides was not unequal, but neither officers nor crews under De 
Winter could compare in seamanship and experience with their 
opponents. The fleets met off Camper down and the Dutch fought 
with their traditional bravery, but the defeat was complete. Out of 
sixteen ships of the line nine were taken, including the flagship of 
De Winter himself. 



348 THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC 

Meanwhile there had arisen strong differences of opinion in the 
RepubUc as to the form of government which was to replace the 
old confederacy of seven sovereign provinces. No one probably 
wished to continue a system which had long proved itself obsolete 
and unworkable. But particularism was still strong, especially in the 
smaller provinces. The country found itself divided into two sharply 
opposed parties of unitarians and federalists. The unitarians were 
the most active, and meetings were held all over the country by the 
local Jacobin clubs. Finally it was determined to hold a central 
meeting of delegates from all the clubs at the Hague. The meeting 
took place on Jan. 26, 1796, and resolutions were passed in favour of 
summoning a National Convention to draw up a new constitution 
on Unitarian lines. Holland and Utrecht pressed the matter forward 
in the States- General, and they had the support of Gelderland and 
Overyssel, but Zeeland, Friesland and Groningen refused their 
assent. Their action was very largely financial, as provinces whose 
indebtedness was small dreaded lest unification should increase 
their burden. But even in the recalcitrant provinces there were a 
large number of moderate men ; and through the intervention of 
the French ambassador, Noel, who gave strong support to the 
unitarians, the proposal of Holland for a National Assembly to 
meet on March i was carried (February 18) by a unanimous vote. 
The following Provisional Regulation was then rapidly drawn up 
by a special committee. The land was divided into districts each 
containing 15,000 inhabitants; these again into fundamental 
assemblies {grondvergaderingen) of 500 persons; each of these 
assemblies chose an "elector" (kiezer); and then the group of 
thirty electors chose a deputy to represent the district. The National 
Assembly was in this way to consist of one hundred and twenty-six 
members; its deliberations were to be public, the voting indi- 
vidualistic and the majority to prevail. A Commission of twenty- 
one deputies was to be appointed, who were to frame a draft- 
Constitution, which after approval by the Assembly was to be 
submitted to the whole body of the people for acceptance or 
rejection. 

The Assembly, having duly met on March i , 1796, in the Binnen- 
hof at the Hague, elected Pieter Paulus as their president, but had the 
misfortune to lose his experienced direction very speedily. He had 
for some time been in bad health, and on March 17 he died. It fell 



THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC 349 

to his lot to assist at the ceremonial closing of the last meeting of 
the States-General, which had governed the Republic of the United 
Netherlands for more than two centuries. 

The National Assembly reflected the pronounced differences of 
opinion in the land. Orangist opinion had no representatives, 
although possibly more than half the population had Orange 
sympathies. All the deputies had accepted in principle French 
revolutionary ideas, but there were three distinct parties, the 
unitarians, the moderates and the federalists. The moderates, who 
were in a majority, occupied, as their name implied, an intermediate 
position between the unitarians or revolutionary party, who wished 
for a centralised republic after the French model, and the federalists 
or conservatives, who aimed at retaining so far as possible the rights 
of the several provinces and towns to manage their own affairs. The 
leaders of the unitarians were Vreede, Midderigh, Valckenier and 
Gogel; of the moderates Schimmelpenninck, Hahn and Kantelaur; 
of the federalists, Vitringa, Van Marie and De Mist. After the death 
of Pieter Paulus the most influential man in an Assembly composed 
of politicians mostly without any parliamentary experience was 
the eloquent and astute Schimmelpenninck, whose opportunist 
moderation sprang from a natural dislike of extreme courses. 

One of the first cares of the Assembly was the appointment of 
the Commission of twenty-one members to draw up a draft 
Constitution. The (so-styled) Regulation, representing the views 
of the moderate majority, was presented to the Assembly on 
November 10. The Republic was henceforth to be a unified state 
governed by the Sovereign People; but the old provinces, though 
now named departments, were to retain large administrative rights 
and their separate financial quotas. The draft met fierce opposition 
from the unitarians, but after much discussion and many amend- 
ments it was at length accepted by the majority. It had, however, 
before becoming law, to be submitted to the people; and the 
network of Jacobin clubs throughout the country, under the 
leadership of the central club at Amsterdam, carried on a wide- 
spread and secret revolutionary propaganda against the Regulation. 
They tried to enlist the open co-operationof the French ambassador, 
Noel, but he, acting under the instruction of the cautious Talleyrand, 
was not disposed to commit himself. 

The unitarian campaign was so successful that the Regulation, 



350 THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC 

on being submitted to the Fundamental Assemblies, was rejected 
by 136,716 votes to 27,955. ^^ these circumstances, as had been 
previously arranged by the Provisional Government, it was necessary 
to summon another National Assembly to draw up another draft 
Constitution. It met on September i, 1797. The moderates, 
though they lost some seats, were still in a majority; and the new 
Commission of Twenty-One had, as before, federalistic leanings. 
The unitarians, therefore, without awaiting their proposals, under 
the leadership of the stalwart revolutionary, Vreede, determined to 
take strong action. The coup d'etat they planned was helped 
forward by two events. The first was the revolution in Paris of 
September 4, 1797, which led to the replacing of ambassador Noel 
by the pronounced Jacobin, Charles Delacroix. The other event 
was the disaster which befell the Dutch fleet at Camperdown, the 
blame for which was laid upon the Provisional Government. 

Vreede and his confederates being assured by Delacroix of the 
support of the new French Directory, and of the co-operation of the 
French General Joubert and of Daendels, the commander of the 
Batavian army, chose for the execution of their plan the week in 
which Midderigh, one of the confederates, took his turn as presi- 
dent of the Assembly. Midderigh, by virtue of his office, being 
in command of the Hague civic force, on January 22, 1798, seized 
and imprisoned the members of the Committee for Foreign Affairs 
and twenty- two members of the Assembly. The " Rump '* then met, 
protected by a strong body of troops, and declared itself a Con- 
stituent Assembly representing the Batavian people. After the 
French model, an Executive Council was nominated, consisting of 
five members, Vreede, Fijnje, Fokker, Wildrik and Van Langen, 
and a new Commission of Seven to frame a Constitution. The 
*' Regulation " was rejected ; and the Assembly solemnly proclaimed 
its "unalterable aversion" to the stadholderate, federalism, 
aristocracy and governmental decentralisation. 

French influence was henceforth paramount ; and the draft of the 
new Constitution, in the framing of which Delacroix took a leading 
part, was ready on March 6. Eleven days later it was approved by 
the Assembly. The Fundamental Assemblies in their turn assented 
to it by 165,520 votes to 1 1 ,597, considerable official pressure being 
exerted to secure this result ; and the Constitution came thus into 
legal existence. Its principal provisions were directed to the com- 



THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC 351 

plete obliteration of the old provincial particularism. The land was 
divided into eight departments, whose boundaries in no case 
coincided with those of the provinces. Holland was split up among 
five departments ; that of the Amstel, with Amsterdam as its capital, 
being the only one that did not contain portions of two or more 
provinces. Each department was divided into seven circles; each of 
these returned one member; and the body of seven formed the 
departmental government. The circles in their turn were divided 
into communes, each department containing sixty or seventy. All 
these local administrations were, however, quite subordinate to the 
authority exercised by the central Representative Body. For the 
purpose of electing this body the land was divided into ninety-four 
districts; each district into forty "Fundamental Assemblies,'' each 
of 500 persons. The forty "electors '* chosen by these units in their 
turn elected the deputy for the department. The ninety-four 
deputies formed the Representative Body, which was divided into 
two Chambers. The Second Chamber of thirty members was 
annually chosen by lot from the ninety-four, the other sixty-four 
forming the First Chamber. The framing and proposing of all laws 
was the prerogative of the First Chamber. The Second Chamber 
accepted or rejected these proposed laws, but for a second rejection 
a two-thirds majority was required. The Executive Power was 
vested in a Directorate of five persons, one of whom was to retire 
every year. To supply his place the Second Chamber chose one out 
of three persons selected by the First Chamber. The Directorate 
had the assistance of eight agents or ministers: Foreign Affairs, 
War, Marine, Finance, Justice, Police, Education, and Economy. 
Finance was nationalised, all charges and debts being borne in 
common. Church and State were separated, payments to the 
Reformed ministers from the State ceasing in three years. 

Such was the project, but it was not to be carried into effect 
without another coup d'etat. It was now the duty of the Con- 
stituent Assembly to proceed to the election of a Representative 
Body. Instead of this, on May 4, 1798, the Assembly declared itself 
to be Representative, so that power remained in the hands of the 
Executive Council, who were afraid of an election returning a 
majority of "moderates." But this autocratic act aroused consider- 
able discontent amongst all except the extreme Jacobin faction. 
The opponents of the Executive Council found a leader in Daendels, 



352 THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC 

who, strong "unionist" though he was, was dissatisfied with the 
arbitrary conduct of this self-constituted government, and more 
especially in matters connected with the army. Daendels betook 
himself to Paris, where he was favourably received by the Foreign 
Secretary, Talleyrand, and with his help was able to persuade the 
French Directory that it was not in their interest to support the 
Jacobin Council in their illegal retention of office. Daendels 
accordingly returned to Holland, where he found the French 
commander, Joubert, friendly to his project, and three of the 
"agents, "including Pijman,the Minister of War, ready to help him. 
Placed in command of the troops at the Hague, Daendels (June 12, 
1798) arrested the directors and the presidents of the two Chambers. 
The Constituent Assembly was dissolved and a new Representative 
Body was (July 31) elected. The moderates, as was expected, were 
in a considerable majority ; and five members of that party, Van 
Hasselt, Hoeth, Van Haersolte, Van Hoeft and Ermerius were 
appointed Directors. 

The country was now at length in the enjoyment of a settled 
constitution based upon liberal principles and popular representa- 
tion. Daendels, though his influence was great, never attempted 
to play the part of a military dictator; and, though party passions 
were strong, no political persecutions followed. Nevertheless 
troubled times awaited the Batavian Republic, and the Constitution 
of 1798 was not to have a long life. 

The Emperor Paul of Russia had taken up arms with Great 
Britain and Austria against revolutionary France, and the hopes of 
the Orange party began to rise. The hereditary prince was very 
active and, though he was unable to move his brother-in-law, the 
King of Prussia, to take active steps in his favour, he succeeded in 
securing the intervention of an Anglo-Russian force on his behalf. 
In August, 1798, a strong English fleet under Admiral Duncan 
appeared ofl" Texel and in the name of the Prince of Orange 
demanded the surrender of the Batavian fleet which lay there under 
Rear- Admiral Story. Story refused. A storm prevented the English 
from taking immediate action ; but on the 26th a landing of troops 
was effected near Callantroog and the Batavian forces abandoned 
the Helder. Story had withdrawn his fleet to Vlieter, but Orangist 
sympathies were strong among his officers and crews, and he was 
compelled to surrender. The ships, hoisting the Orange flag, became 



THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC 353 

henceforth a squadron attached to the English fleet. Such was the 
humiliating end of the Batavian navy. The efforts of the hereditary 
prince to stir up an insurrection in Overyssel and Gelderland failed ; 
and he thereupon joined the Anglo-Russian army, which, about 
50,000 strong, was advancing under the command of the Duke of 
York to invade Holland. But York was an incompetent commander ; 
there was little harmony between the British and Russian con- 
tingents ; and the French and Batavians under Generals Brune and 
Daendels inflicted defeats upon them at Bergen (September 19), 
and at Castricum (October 6). York thereupon entered upon 
negotiations with Brune and was allowed to re-embark his troops 
for England, after restoration of the captured guns and prisoners. 
The expedition was a miserable fiasco. 

At the very time when the evacuation of North Holland by invad- 
ing armies was taking place, the Directory in Paris had been over- 
thrown by Bonaparte (18 Brumaire, or Nov. 20), who now, with the 
title of First Consul, ruled France with dictatorial powers. The con- 
duct of the Batavian government during these transactions had not 
been above suspicion ; and Bonaparte at once replaced Brune by Auge- 
reau, and sent Semonville as ambassador in place of Deforgues. He 
was determined to compel the Batavian Republic to comply strictly 
with the terms imposed by the treaty of 1795, and demanded more 
troops and more money. In vain the Executive Council, by the 
mouth of its ambassador, Schinmielpenninck, protested its inability 
to satisfy those demands. Augereau was inexorable, and there was 
no alternative but to obey. But the very feebleness of the central 
government made Bonaparte resolve on a revision of the con- 
stitution in an anti-democratic direction. Augereau acted as an 
intermediary between him and the Executive Council. Three of 
the directors favoured his views, the other two opposed them. The 
Representative Body, however, rejected all proposals for a revision. 
On this the three called in the aid of Augereau, who suspended 
the Representative Body and closed the doors of its hall of meeting. 
The question was now referred to the Fundamental Assemblies. 
On October i, 1801, the voting resulted in 52,279 noes against 
16,771 yeas. About 350,000 voters abstained, but these were de- 
clared to be ''yeas " ; and the new constitution became on October 16 
the law of the land. 

The Constitution of 180 1 placed the executive power in the hands 

E. H. H. 2J 



354 THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC 

of a State-Government of twelve persons. The three directors chose 
seven others, who in their turn chose five more, amongst these the 
above-named three, to whom they owed their existence. With this 
State- Government was associated a LegislativeBody of 35members, 
who met twice in the year and whose only function was to accept 
without amendment, or to reject, the proposals of the Executive 
Body. The "agents" were abolished and replaced by small councils, 
who administered the various departments of State. Considerable 
administrative powers were given to the local governments, and the 
boundaries of the eight departments, Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, 
Overyssel (in which D rente was included), Gelderland, Groningen, 
Friesland, and Brabant, were made to coincide largely with those 
of the old provinces. The aim of the new Constitution was efficiency, 
the reconciliat on of the moderate elements both of the federalist 
and unitarian parties, and the restraint alike of revolutionary and 
Orangist intrigues. 

It began its course in fortunate circumstances. The long-wished- 
for peace was concluded at Amiens on March 27, 1802. It was 
signed by Schimmelpenninck, as the representative of the Batavian 
Republic, but he had not been allowed to have any influence upon 
the decisions. Great Britain restored all the captured colonies, ex- 
cept Ceylon ; and the house of Orange was indemnified by the grant 
of the secularised Bishopric of Fulda, the abbeys of Korvey and 
Weingarten, together with the towns of Dortmund, Isny and Buch- 
horn. The hereditary prince, as his father refused to reside in this 
new domain, undertook the duties of government. William V pre- 
ferred to live on his Nassau Estates. He died at Brunswick in 1806. 

The peace was joyfully welcomed in Holland, for it removed the 
British blockade and gave a promise of the revival of trade. But 
all the hopes of better times were blighted with the fresh outbreak 
of war in 1803. All the colonial possessions were again lost; and a 
new treaty of alliance, which the State- Government was com- 
pelled to conclude with France, led to heavy demands. The 
Republic was required to provide for the quartering and support 
of 18,000 French troops and 16,000 Batavians under a French 
general. Further, a fleet of ten ships of war was to be maintained, 
and 350 flat-bottomed transports built for the conveyance of an 
invading army to England. These demands were perforce complied 
with. Nevertheless Napoleon was far from satisfied with the State- 



THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC 355 

Government, which he regarded as inefficient and secretly hostile. 
In Holland itself it was hated, because of the heavy charges it was 
obliged to impose. Bonaparte accordingly determined to replace it 
and to concentrate the executive power in a single person. The 
Legislative Body was to remain, but the head of the State was to 
bear the title of council-pensionary, and was to be elected for a 
period of five years. Schimmelpenninck was designated for this 
post. Referred to a popular vote, the new Constitution was approved 
by 14,230 against 136; about 340,000 abstained from voting. On 
April 29, 1805, Schimmelpenninck entered into office as council- 
pensionary. He was invested with monarchical authority. The 
executive power, finance, the army and navy, the naming of 
ambassadors, the proposing of legislation, were placed in his hands. 
He was assisted by a Council of State, nominated by himself, of 
five members, and by six Secretaries of State. The Legislative Body 
was reduced to nineteen members, appointed by the Departmental 
Governments. They met twice in the year and could accept or 
reject the proposals of the council-pensionary, but not amend them. 
Schimmelpenninck was honest and able, and during the brief 
period of his administration did admirable work. With the aid of 
the accomplished financier Gogel, who had already done much good 
service to his country in difficult circumstances, he, by spreading 
the burdens of taxation equally over all parts of the land and by 
removing restrictive customs and duties, succeeded in reducing 
largely the deficits in the annual balance-sheet. He also was the 
first to undertake seriously the improvement of primary education. 
But it was not Napoleon's intention to allow the council-pensionary 
to go on with the good work he had begun. The weakening of 
Schimmelpenninck's eyesight, through cataract, gave the emperor 
the excuse for putting an end to what he regarded as a provisional 
system of government, and for converting Holland into a dependent 
kingdom under the rule of his brother Louis. Admiral Verhuell, 
sent to Paris at Napoleon's request on a special mission, was bluntly 
informed that Holland must choose between the acceptance of 
Louis as their king, or annexation. On Verhuell's return with the 
report of the emperor's ultimatum, the council-pensionary (April 
10, 1806) summoned the Council of State, the Secretaries and the 
Legislative Body to meet together as an Extraordinary Committee 
and deliberate on what were best to be done. It was resolved to send 

23 — 2 



356 THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC 

a deputation to Paris to try to obtain from Napoleon the relin- 
quishment, or at least a modification, of his demand. Their efforts 
were in vain; Napoleon's attitude was peremptory. The Hague 
Committee must within a week petition that Louis Bonaparte 
might be their king, or he would take the matter into his own hands. 
The Committee, despite the opposition of Schimmelpenninck, 
finding resistance hopeless, determined to yield. The deputation 
at Paris was instructed accordingly to co-operate with the emperor 
in the framing of a new monarchical constitution. It was drawn up 
and signed on May 23 ; and a few days later it was accepted by the 
Hague Committee. Schimmelpenninck, however, refused to sign it 
and resigned his ofl&ce on June 4, explaining in a dignified letter his 
reasons for doing so. Verhuell, at the head of a deputation (June 5), 
now went through the farce of begging the emperor in the name of 
the Dutch people to allow his brother, Louis, to be their king. 
Louis accepted the proffered sovereignty ''since the people desires 
and Your Majesty commands it." On June 15 the new king left 
Paris and a week later arrived at the Hague, accompanied by his 
wife, Hortense de Beauharnais, Napoleon's step-daughter. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE KINGDOM OF HOLLAND AND THE 
FRENCH ANNEXATION, 1806-1814 

Louis Bonaparte was but 28 years old, and of a kindly, gentle 
character very unlike his self-willed, domineering brother. He was 
weakly, and his ill-health made him at times restless and moody. 
He had given great satisfaction by his declaration that "as soon as 
he set foot on the soil of his kingdom he became a Hollander," and 
he was well received. The constitution of the new kingdom differed 
little from that it superseded. The Secretaries of State became 
Ministers, and the number of members of the Legislative Body was 
raised to thirty-nine. The king had power to conclude treaties with 
foreign States without consulting the Legislative Body. The 
partition of the country was somewhat changed, Holland being 
divided into two departments, Amstelland and Maasland. Drente 
became a separate department; and in 1807 East Friesland with 
Jever was made into an eleventh department, as compensation 
for Flushing, which was annexed to France. 

Louis came to the Hague with the best intentions of doing his 
utmost to promote the welfare of his kingdom, but from the first 
he was thwarted by the deplorable condition of the national 
finances. Out of a total income of fifty million florins the interest 
on the national debt absorbed thirty-five millions. The balance 
was not nearly sufficient to defray the costs of administration, much 
less to meet the heavy demands of Napoleon for contributions to 
war expenditure. All the efforts of the finance minister Gogel to 
reduce the charges and increase the income were of small avail. 
The king was naturally lavish, and he spent considerable sums in 
the maintenance of a brilliant court, and in adding to the number of 
royal residences. Dissatisfied with the Hague, he moved first to 
Utrecht, then to Amsterdam, where the Stadhuis was converted 
into a palace ; and he bought the Pavilion at Haarlem as a summer 
abode. All this meant great expenditure. Louis was vain, and was 
only prevented from creating marshals of his army and orders of 



358 THE KINGDOM OF HOLLAND 

chivalry by Napoleon's stern refusal to permit it. He had to be 
reminded that by the Bonaparte family-law he was but a vassal 
king, owning allegiance to the emperor. 

Despite these weaknesses Louis did much for the land of his 
adoption. The old Rhine at Ley den, which lost itself in the dunes, 
was connected by a canal with Katwijk on the sea, where a harbour 
was created. The dykes and waterways were repaired and improved, 
and high-roads constructed from the Hague to Leyden, and from 
Utrecht to Het Loo. Dutch literature found in Louis a generous 
patron. He took pains to learn the language from the instruction 
of Bilderdijk, the foremost writer of his day. The foundation in 
1808 of the "Royal Netherland Institute for Science, Letters and 
the Fine Arts " was a signal mark of his desire to raise the standard 
of culture in Holland on a national basis. The introduction of the 
Code Napoleon y with some necessary modifications, replaced a 
confused medley of local laws and customs, varying from province 
to province, by a general unified legal system. As a statesman and 
administrator Louis had no marked ability, but the ministers to 
whom he entrusted the conduct of affairs, Verhuell, minister of 
marine, Roell, of foreign affairs, Kragenhoff , of war, Van Maanen, 
of justice, and more especially the experienced Gogel, in control of 
the embarrassed finances, were capable men. 

The state of the finances indeed was the despair of the Dutch 
government. The imperious demands of Napoleon for the main- 
tenance of an army of 40 ,000 men, to be employed by him on foreign 
campaigns, and also of a considerable navy, made all attempts at 
economy and re-organisation of the finances almost hopeless. By 
the war with England the Dutch had lost their colonies and most 
of their great sea-borne trade ; and the situation was rendered more 
difficult by the Decree of Berlin in 1806 and the establishment of 
the " Continental System " by the emperor, as a reply to the British 
blockade. All trade and even correspondence with England were 
forbidden. He hoped thus to bring England to her knees; but, 
though the decree did not achieve this object, it did succeed in bring- 
ing utter ruin upon the Dutch commercial classes. In vain Louis 
protested ; he was not heard and only met with angry rebukes from 
his brother for not taking more vigorous steps to stop smuggling, 
which the character of the Dutch coast rendered a comparatively 
easy and, at the same time, lucrative pursuit. 



AND THE FRENCH ANNEXATION 359 

The overthrow of Austria and Prussia by Napoleon in 1805 and 
1806, followed in 1807 by the Peace of Tilsit with Russia, made the 
emperor once more turn his attention to the project of an invasion 
of his hated enemy, England. A great French fleet was to be con- 
centrated on the Scheldt, with Antwerp and Flushing for its bases. 
For this purpose large sums of money were expended in converting 
Antwerp into a formidable naval arsenal. But the British govern- 
ment were well aware of "the pistol that was being aimed at 
England's breast"; and in 1809 a powerful expedition under the 
command of Lord Chatham was despatched, consisting of more 
than 100 warships and transports, with the object of destroying 
these growing dockyards and arsenals, and with them the threat 
of invasion. The attack was planned at a favourable moment, for 
the defensive force was very small, the bulk of the Dutch army 
having been sent to fight in the Austrian and Spanish campaigns, 
and the French garrisons greatly reduced. Chatham landed on the 
island of Walcheren, captured Middelburg and Veere and on August 15 
compelled Flushing to surrender after such a furious bombardment 
that scarcely any houses remained standing. The islands of Schou- 
wen, Duiveland and Zuid-Beveland were overrun; and, had the 
British general pushed on without delay, Antwerp might have 
fallen. But this he failed to do ; and meanwhile Louis had collected, 
for the defence of the town, a force of 20,000 men, which, to his deep 
chagrin. Napoleon did not allow him to command. No attack 
however was made on Antwerp by the British, who had suffered 
severely from the fevers of Walcheren ; and on the news of Wagram 
and the Treaty of Schonbrunn they slowly evacuated their con- 
quests. Before the end of the year the whole force had returned 
to England. 

This invasion, though successfully repelled, only accentuated the 
dissensions between the two brothers. French troops remained in 
occupation of Zeeland ; and the French army of the north at Antwerp , 
now placed under the command of Marshal Oudinot, lay ready to 
enforce the demands of the emperor should the Dutch government 
prove recalcitrant. Those demands included the absolute suppression 
of smuggling, the strictest enforcement of the decrees against 
trading with England, conscription, and a repudiation of a portion 
of the State debt. Napoleon overwhelmed his brother with bitter 
gibes and angry threats, declaring that he wished to make Holland 



36o THE KINGDOM OF HOLLAND 

an English colony, and that the whole land, even his own palace, 
was full of smuggled goods. At last, though unwillingly, Louis 
consented to go in person to Paris and try to bring about an amic- 
able settlement of the questions at issue. He arrived on December 
26, intending to return at the New Year, meanwhile leaving the 
Council of Ministers in charge of the affairs of the kingdom. He 
soon found not only that his mission was in vain, but that he was 
regarded virtually as a prisoner. For three months he remained in 
Paris under police surveillance ; and his interviews with his brother 
were of the most stormy description. The Dutch Council, alarmed 
by the constant threat of French invasion, at first thought of putting 
Amsterdam into a state of defence, but finally abandoned the idea 
as hopeless. The king did his utmost to appease Napoleon by the 
offer of concessions, but his efforts were scornfully rejected, and at 
last he was compelled (March 16, 18 10) to sign a treaty embodying 
the terms dictated by the emperor. "I must," he said, "at any 
price get out of this den of murderers." By this treaty Brabant 
and Zeeland and the land between the Maas and the Waal, with 
Nijmwegen, were ceded to France. All commerce with England 
was forbidden. French custom-house officers were placed at 
the mouths of the rivers and at every port. Further, the Dutch 
were required to deliver up fifteen men-of-war and one hundred 
gunboats. 

Louis was compelled to remain at Paris for the marriage of 
Napoleon with Marie Louise, but was then allowed to depart. 
Discouraged and humiliated, he found himself, with the title of 
king, practically reduced to the position of administrative governor 
of some French departments. Oudinot's troops were in occupation 
of the Hague, Utrecht and Ley den ; and, when the emperor and his 
bride paid a state visit to Antwerp, Louis had to do him homage. 
The relations between the two brothers had for some time been 
strained, Napoleon having taken the part of his step-daughter 
Hortense, who preferred the gaiety of Paris to the dull court 
of her husband, reproached the injured man for not treating 
better the best of wives. Matters were now to reach their climax. 
The coachman of the French ambassador, Rochefoucault, having 
met with maltreatment in the streets of Amsterdam, the emperor 
angrily ordered Rochefoucault to quit the Dutch capital (May 29), 
leaving only a charge d'affaires, and at the same time dismissed 



AND THE FRENCH ANNEXATION 361 

Yerhuell, the Dutch envoy, from Paris. This was practically a 
declaration of war. The Council of Ministers, on being consulted, 
determined that it was useless to attempt the defence of Amsterdam ; 
and, when the king learned towards the end of June that Oudinot 
had orders to occupy the city, he resolved to forestall this final 
humiliation by abdication. On July i, i8io> he signed the deed by 
which he laid down his crown in favour of his elder son, Napoleon 
Louis, under the guardianship of Queen Hortense. He then left 
the country, and retired into Bohemia. 

To this disposition of the kingdom Napoleon, who had already 
made up his mind, paid not the slightest heed. On July 9 an Imperial 
Decree incorporated Holland in the French empire. "Holland," 
said the emperor, "being formed by the deposits of three French 
rivers, the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt, was by nature a part 
of France." Not till January i, 181 1, was the complete incorpora- 
tion to take place; meanwhile Le Brun, Duke of Piacenza, a man 
of 72 years of age, was sent to Amsterdam to be governor-general 
during the period of transition. It was a wise appointment, as Le 
Brun was a man of kindly disposition, ready to listen to grievances 
and with an earnest desire to carry out the transformation of the 
government in a conciliatory spirit. With him was associated, as 
Intendant of Home Affairs, Baron D'Alphonse, like himself of 
moderate views, and a Council of Ministers. A deputation of 
twenty-two persons from the Legislative Assembly was summoned 
to Paris for consultation with the Imperial Government. To 
Amsterdam was given the position of the third city in the empire, 
Paris being the first and Rome the second. The country was 
divided into nine departments — Bouches de I'Escaut, Bouches de 
la Meuse, Bouches du Rhin, Zuiderzee, Issel superieur, Bouches 
de Issel, Frise, Ems Occidental and Ems Oriental. Over the 
departments, as in France, were placed prefets and under them 
souS'prefets and maires. All the prefets now appointed were native 
Dutchmen with the exception of two, De Celles at Amsterdam and 
De Standaart at the Hague ; both were Belgians and both rendered 
themselves unpopular by their efforts to gain Napoleon's favour 
by a stringent enforcement of his orders. The Dutch representation 
in the Legislative Assembly at Paris was fixed at twenty-five 
members; in the Senate at six members. When these took their 
seats, the Council of Affairs at Amsterdam was dissolved and at 



362 THE KINGDOM OF HOLLAND 

the same time the Code Napoleon unmodified became the law of the 
land. 

Napoleon's demands upon Holland had always been met with 
the reply that the land's finances were unequal to the strain. The 
debt amounted to 40,000,000 fl. ; and, despite heavy taxation, there 
was a large annual deficit in the budget. The emperor at once took 
action to remedy this state of things by a decree reducing the 
interest on the debt to one-third. This was a heavy blow to those 
persons whose Umited incomes were mainly or entirely derived 
from investments in the State Funds — including many widows, and 
also hospitals, orphanages and other charitable institutions. At 
the same time this step should not be regarded as a mere arbitrary 
and dishonest repudiation of debt. The State was practically 
bankrupt. For some years only a portion of the interest or nothing 
at all had been paid ; and the reduction in 18 10 was intended to be 
but a temporary measure. The capital amount was left untouched, 
and the arrears of 1808 and 1809 were paid up at the new rate. 
That financial opinion was favourably impressed by this drastic 
action was shown by a considerable rise in the quotation of the 
Stock on the Bourse. 

A far more unpopular measure was the introduction of military 
and naval conscription in 181 1. There never had been any but 
voluntary service in Holland. Indeed during the whole period of 
the Republic, though the fleet was wholly manned by Dutch 
seamen, the army always included a large proportion of foreign 
mercenaries. By the law of 181 1 all youths of twenty were liable 
to serve for five years either on land or sea; and the contingent 
required was filled by the drawing of lots. Deep and strong resent- 
ment was felt throughout the country, the more so that the law 
was made retrospective to all who had reached the age of twenty 
in the three preceding years. The battalions thus raised were treated 
as French troops, and were sent to take part in distant campaigns — 
in Spain and in Russia. Of the 15,000 men who marched with 
Napoleon into Russia in 1812 only a few hundreds returned. 

The strict enforcement of the Continental System entailed great 
hardships upon the population. To such an extent was the embargo 
carried that all English manufactured goods found in Holland were 
condemned to be burnt ; and the value of what was actually con- 
sumed amounted to millions of florins. A whole army of custom- 



AND THE FRENCH ANNEXATION 363 

house officers watched the coast, and every fishing smack that put 
to sea had one on board. At the same time not till 1812 was the 
customs barrier with France removed. In consequence of this 
prices rose enormously, industries were ruined, houses were given 
up and remained unoccupied, and thousands upon thousands were 
reduced to abject poverty. Such was the state of the treasury that 
in 1 8 12 the reformed preachers received no stipends, and officials 
of all kinds had to be content with reduced salaries. 

Nor were these the only causes of discontent. The poHce 
regulations and the censorship of the press were of the severest 
description, and the land swarmed with spies. No newspaper was 
permitted to publish any article upon matters of State or any 
political news except such as was sanctioned by the government, 
and with a French translation of the Dutch original. This applied 
even to advertisements. All books had to be submitted for the 
censor's imprimatur. Every household was subject to the regular 
visitation of the police, who made the most minute inquisition into 
the character, the opinions, the occupations and means of sub- 
sistence of every member of the household. 

Nevertheless the French domination, however oppressive, had 
good results in that for the first time in their history the Dutch 
provinces acquired a real unity. All the old particularism dis- 
appeared with the burgher-aristocracies, and the party feuds of 
Orangists and patriots. A true sense of nationality was developed. 
All classes of the population enjoyed the same poHtical rights and 
equality before the law. Napoleon himself was not unpopular. 
In the autumn of 181 1 he, accompanied by Marie Louise, made a 
state-progress through this latest addition to his empire. Almost 
every important place was visited, and in all parts of the country he 
was received with outward demonstrations of enthusiasm and 
almost servile obsequiency. It is perhaps not surprising, as the 
great emperor was now at the very topmost height of his dazzling 
fortunes. 

But for Holland Napoleon's triumphs had their dark side, for 
his chief and most determined enemy, England, was mistress of 
the seas; and the last and the richest of the Dutch colonies, Java, 
surrendered to the English almost on the very day that the Imperial 
progress began. Hearing of the activity of the British squadron in 
the Eastern seas, King Louis had, shortly after his acceptance of the 



364 THE KINGDOM OF HOLLAND 

crown, taken steps for the defence of Java by appointing Daendels, 
a man of proved vigour and initiative, governor-general. The 
difficuhies of reaching Java in face of British vigilance w^ere however 
well-nigh insurmountable, and it was not until a year after his 
nomination to the governorship that Daendels reached Batavia, 
on January i, 1808. His measures for the defence of the island, 
including the construction of important highways, were most 
energetic, but so oppressive and high-handed as to arouse hostility 
and alienate the native chiefs. Napoleon, informed of Daendels' 
harsh rule, sent out Janssens with a body of troops to replace him. 
The new governor-general landed on April 27, 181 1, but he could 
make no effective resistance to a powerful British expedition under 
General Auchmuty, which took possession of Batavia on August 4, 
and after some severe fighting compelled (September 17) the whole 
of the Dutch forces to capitulate. 

The year of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, 181 2, was a year of 
passive endurance. The safety of the remnant of the Grand Army 
was secured (November 28) by the courage and staunchness of the 
Dutch pontoon-engineers, who, standing in the ice-cold water of 
the Beresina, completed the bridge over which, after a desperate 
battle, the French troops effected their escape. The Moscow 
catastrophe was followed in 181 3 by a general uprising of the 
oppressed peoples of Europe against the Napoleonic tyranny. In 
this uprising the Dutch people, although hopes of freedom were 
beginning to dawn upon them, did not for some time venture to 
take any part. The Prince of Orange however had been in London 
since April, trying to secure a promise of assistance from the British 
government in case of a rising ; and he was working in collaboration 
with a number of patriotic men in Holland, who saw in an Orange 
restoration the best hopes for their country's independence. The 
news of Leipzig (October 14-16) roused them to action. 

Foremost among these leaders was Gijsbert Karel van Hogen- 
dorp. He had been one of the Orangist leaders at the time of the 
restoration of 1787 and had filled the post of pensionary of Rotter- 
dam. After the French conquest he had withdrawn from public lifci 
With him were associated Count Van Limburg-Stirum and Baron 
Van der Duyn van Maasdam, like himself residents at the Hague. 
Van Hogendorp could also count on a number of active helpers 
outside the Hague, prominent among whom were Falck, Captain 



AND THE FRENCH ANNEXATION 365 

of the National Guard at Amsterdam, and Kemper, a professor at 
Leyden. Plans were made for restoring the independence of the 
country under the rule of the Prince of Orange ; but, in order to 
escape the vigilance of the French police, great care was taken to 
maintain secrecy, and nothing was committed to writing. The 
rapid march of allied troops, Russians and Prussians, towards the 
Dutch frontiers after Leipzig necessitated rapid action. 

Van Hogendorp and his friends wished that Holland should free 
herself by her own exertions, for they were aware that reconquest 
by the allied forces might imperil their claims to independence. 
Their opportunity came when General Melliton, by order of 
the governor-general Le Brun, withdrew on November 14 from 
Amsterdam to Utrecht. One of the Orangist confederates, a sea- 
captain, named Job May, on the following day stirred up a popular 
rising in the city ; and some custom-houses were burnt. Le Brun 
himself on this retreated to Utrecht and, on the i6th, after trans- 
ferring the government of the country to Melliton, returned to 
France. Falck at the head of the National Guard had meanwhile 
re-established order at Amsterdam, and placed the town in charge 
of a provisional government. No sooner did this news reach the 
Hague than Van Hogendorp and Van Limburg-Stirum determined 
upon instant action (November 17). With a proclamation drawn up 
by Van Hogendorp, and at the head of a body of the National 
Guard wearing Orange colours. Van Limburg-Stirum marched 
through the streets to the Town Hall, where he read the proclama- 
tion declaring the Prince of Orange "eminent head of the State." 
No opposition being offered, after discussion with their chief 
supporters, the triumvirate. Van Hogendorp, Van Limburg-Stirum 
and Van der Duyn van Maasdam, took upon themselves provisionally 
the government of the country, until the arrival of the Prince. 
Emissaries were at once sent to Amsterdam to announce w^hat had 
taken place at the Hague. At first the Amsterdammers showed some 
hesitation ; and it was not until the arrival of a body of Cossacks at 
their gates (November 24), that the city openly threw in its lot with 
the Orangist movement, which now rapidly spread throughout the 
country. Without delay the provisional government despatched 
two envoys, Fagel and De Perponcher, to London, to inform the 
Prince of Orange of what had occurred and to invite him to 
Holland. 



366 THE KINGDOM OF HOLLAND 

William had been in England since April and had met with a 
favourable reception. In an interview with the British Foreign 
Secretary, Lord Castlereagh, support had been promised him 
(April 27, 1813) on the following conditions: (i) the frontiers of 
Holland should be extended "either by a sort of new Barrier, more 
effective than the old one, or by the union of some portions of 
territory adjacent to the ancient Republic ; (2) Holland must wait 
until such time as Great Britain should deem convenient in her 
own interests for the restoration of the Dutch colonies, which she 
had conquered during the war; (3) a system of government must 
be set up which would reconcile the wishes of Holland with those 
of the Powers called to exercise so powerful an influence upon her 
future." William had gone to London knowing that he could rely 
on the active assistance of his brother-in-law, Frederick William 
of Prussia, and of the Emperor Alexander I, and that the goodwill of 
England was assured by the projected marriage of his son (now 
serving under Wellington in Spain) with the Princess Charlotte, 
heiress-presumptive to the British throne. He now therefore 
without hesitation accepted the invitation, and landed at Scheve- 
ningen, November 30. He was received with unspeakable 
enthusiasm. At first there was some doubt as to what title William 
should bear and as to what should be the form of the new govern- 
ment. Van Hogendorp had drawn up a draft of a constitution on 
the old lines with an hereditary stadholder, a council-pensionary 
and a privileged aristocracy, but with large and necessary amend- 
ments, and the prince was himself inclined to a restoration of the 
stadholdership with enlarged powers. To the arguments of Kemper 
is the credit due of having persuaded him that a return to the old 
system, however amended, had now become impossible. The prince 
visited Amsterdam, December 2, and was there proclaimed by the 
title and quality of William I, Sovereign-Prince of the Netherlands. 
He refused the title of king, but the position he thus accepted with 
general approval was that of a constitutional monarch, and the 
promise was given that as soon as possible a Commission should 
be appointed to draw up a Fundamental Law (Grondwet) for the 
Dutch State. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE FORMATION OF THE KINGDOM 
OF THE NETHERLANDS, 1814-1815 

When the Prince of Orange assumed the title of William I, 
Sovereign-Prince of the Netherlands, at Amsterdam, on Decem- 
ber 2, 1 81 3, the principal towns were still occupied by French 
garrisons; but with the help of the allied forces, Russians and 
Prussians, these were, in the opening months of 18 14, one by one 
conquered. The Helder garrison, under the command of Admiral 
Verhuell, did not surrender till May. By the end of that month 
the whole land was freed. 

The first step taken by the Sovereign-Prince (December 21) was 
to appoint a Commission to draw up a Fundamental Law according 
to his promise. The Commission consisted of fifteen members, with 
Van Hogendorp as president. Their labours were concluded early 
in March. The concept was on March 29 submitted to an Assembly 
of six hundred notables, summoned for the purpose, the voting to 
be 'for' or 'against' without discussion. The gathering took place 
in the Nieuwe Kerk at Amsterdam. Of the 474 who were present, 
448 voted in favour of the new Constitution. On the following day 
the Prince of Orange took the oath in the Nieuwe Kerk and was 
solemnly inaugurated as Sovereign-Prince of the Netherlands. 

The principal provisions of the Fundamental Law of March, 
1 8 14, were as follows : 

The Sovereign shares the Legislative Power with the States-General, 
but alone exercises the Executive Power. All the sovereign prerogatives 
formerly possessed by provinces, districts or towns are now transferred 
to the Sovereign. He is assisted by a Council of State of twelve members, 
appoints and dismisses ministers, declares war and makes peace, has the 
control of finance and governs the overseas-possessions. The States- 
General consist of fifty-five members, elected by the nine provinces, 
Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Overyssel, Gelderland, Groningen, Fries- 
land, Brabant and Drente on the basis of population. The members are 
elected for three years, but one-third vacate their seats every year. They 
have the right of legislative initiative, and of veto. The finances are 



368 THE FORMATION OF THE 

divided into ordinary and extraordinary expenditure, over the former the 
States- General exercise no control, but a general Chamber of Accounts 
(Algemeene Rekenkamer) has the supervision over ways and means » 
The Sovereign must be a member of the Reformed Church, but equal 
protection is given by the State to all religious beliefs. 

It was essentially an aristocratic constitution. At least one 
quarter of the States- General must belong to the nobility. The 
Provincial Estates had the control of local affairs only, but had the 
privilege of electing the members of the States- General. They were 
themselves far from being representative. For the country districts 
the members were chosen from the nobility and the land-owners ; 
in the towns by colleges of electors (ktezers)^ consisting of those 
who paid the highest contributions in taxes. Except for the 
strengthening of the central executive power and the abolition of 
all provincial sovereign rights, the new Constitution differed little 
from the old in its oligarchic character. 

It was, however, to be but a temporary arrangement. It has 
already been pointed out that, months before his actual return ta 
Holland, the prince had received assurances from the British, 
government that a strong Netherland State should be created, 
capable of being a barrier to French aggression. The time had now 
arrived for the practical carrying-out of this assurance. Accordingly 
Lord Castlereagh in January, 1814, when or^ his way, as British 
plenipotentiary, to confer with the Allied Sovereigns at Basel, 
visited the Sovereign-Prince at the Hague. The conversations issued 
in a proposal to unite (with the assent of Austria) the Belgic provinces 
as far as the Meuse to Holland together with the territory between 
the Meuse and the Rhine as far as the line Maestricht-Diiren- 
Cologne. Castlereagh submitted this project to the allies at Basel; 
and it was discussed and adopted in principle at the Conference of 
Chatillon (February 3 to March 15), the Austrian Emperor having 
renounced all claim to his Belgian dominions in favour of an 
equivalent in Venetia. This was done without any attempt to 
ascertain the wishes of the Belgian people on the proposed trans- 
ference of their allegiance, and a protest was made. An assembly 
of notables, which had been summoned to Brussels by the miUtary 
governor, the Duke of Saxe- Weimar, sent a deputation to the allied 
headquarters at Chaumont to express their continued loyalty to 
their Habsburg sovereign and to ask that, if the Emperor Francis 



KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS, 1814-1815 369 

relinquished his claim, they might be erected into an independent 
State under the rule of an Austrian archduke. A written reply 
(March 14) informed them that the question of union with Holland 
was settled, but assurances were given that in matters of religion, 
representation, commerce and the public debt their interests would 
be carefully guarded. Meanwhile General Baron Vincent, a Belgian 
in the Austrian service, was made governor-general. 

The idea, however, of giving to Holland a slice of cis-Rhenan 
territory had perforce to be abandoned in the face of Prussian 
objections. The preliminary Treaty of Peace signed at Paris on May 
30, 1 814, was purposely vague, Art. VI merely declaring that 
"Holland placed under the sovereignty of the House of Orange 
shall receive an increase of territory — un accroissement de territoire '* ; 
but a secret article defined this increase as " the countries comprised 
between the sea, the frontiers of France, as defined by the present 
treaty ; and the Meuse shall be united in perpetuity to Holland. The 
frontiers on the right bank of the Meuse shall be regulated in 
accordance with the military requirements of Holland and her 
neighbours." In other words the whole of Belgium as far as the 
Meuse was to be annexed to Holland; beyond the Meuse the 
military requirements of Prussia were to be consulted. 

Previously to this, Castlereagh had written to the British Minister 
at the Hague, Lord Clancarty , suggesting that the Sovereign-Prince 
should summon a meeting of an equal number of Dutch and Belgian 
notables to draw up a project of union to be presented to the Allied 
Sovereigns at Paris for their approbation. But William had already 
himself, with the assistance of his minister Van Nagell, drawn up 
in eight articles the fundamental conditions for the constitution of 
the new State ; and, after revision by Falck and Lord Clancarty, he in 
person took them to Paris. They were laid by Clancarty before the 
plenipotentiaries, and were adopted by the Allied Sovereigns 
assembled in London on June 21, 18 14. The principles which 
animated them were set forth in a protocol which breathes through- 
out a spirit of fairness and conciliation — but all was marred by 
the final clause — Elles mettent ces principes en execution en vertu de 
leur droit de conquete de la Belgique. To unite Belgium to Holland, 
as a conquered dependency, could not fail to arouse bad feelings ; 
and thus to proclaim it openly was a very grave mistake. It was not 
thus that that "perfect amalgamation" of the two countries, at 

E. H. H. 24 



370 THE FORMATION OF THE 

which, according to the protocol, the Great Powers aimed, was likely 
to be effected. 

At the same time, as a standing proof of William's own excellent 
intentions, the text of the Eight Articles is given in full: 

(i) The union shall be intimate and complete^ so that the two countries 
shall form but one State, to be governed by the Fundamental Law already 
established in Holland^ which by mutual consent shall be modified according 
to the circumstances. 

(2) There shall be no change in those Articles of the Fundamental Law 
which secure to all religious cults equal protection and privilegeSy and 
guarantee the admissibility of all citizens , whatever be their religious creeds 
to public offices and dignities. 

(3) The Belgian provinces shall be in a fitting manner represented in the 
States-General, whose sittings in time of peace shall be held by turns in a 
Dutch and a Belgian town. 

(4) All the inhabitants of the Netherlands thus having equal constitu- 
tional rights, they shall have equal claim to all commercial and other rights, 
of which their circumstances allow, without any hindrance or obstruction 
being imposed on any to the profit of others. 

(5) Immediately after the union the provinces and towns of Belgium 
shall be admitted to the commerce and navigation of the colonies of Holland 
upon the same footing as the Dutch provinces and towns. 

(6) The debts contracted on the one side by the Dutch, and on the other 
side by the Belgian provinces, shall be charged to the public chest of the 
Netherlands, 

(7) The expenses required for the building and maintenance of the frontier 
fortresses of the new State shall be borne by the public chest as serving the 
security and independence of the whole nation. 

(8) The cost of the making and upkeep of the dykes shall be at the charge 
of the districts more directly interested, except in the case of an extraordinary 
disaster. 

It is not too much to say that, if the provisions of these Articles 
had been carried out fully and generously, there might have been 
at the present moment a strong and united Netherland State. 

On July 21 the Articles, as approved by the Powers, were returned 
to the Sovereign-Prince, who officially accepted them, and on 
August I took over at Brussels the government of the Belgic 
provinces, while awaiting the decisions of the Congress, which was 
shortly to meet at Vienna, as to the boundaries and political status 
of the territories over which he ruled. The work of the Congress, 
however, which met in October, was much delayed by differences 



KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS, 1814-1815 371 

between the Powers. Prussia wished to annex the entire kingdom of 
Saxony; and, when it was found that such a claim, if persisted in, 
would be opposed by Great Britain, Austria and France, compen- 
sation was sought in the Rhenish provinces. Thus the idea of 
strengthening the new Netherland buffer-state by an addition of 
territory in the direction of the Rhine had to be abandoned. It must 
be remembered that the Sovereign-Prince on his part was not likely 
to raise any objection to having an enlarged and strengthened 
Prussia as his immediate neighbour on the east. William was both 
brother-in-law and first cousin of the King of Prussia, and had 
spent much of his exile at Berlin; and he no doubt regarded the 
presence of this strong military power on his frontier as the surest 
guarantee against French aggression. His relations with Prussia 
were indeed of the friendliest character, as is shown by the fact 
that secret negotiations were at this very time taking place for the 
cession to Prussia of his hereditary Nassau principalities of 
Dillenburg, Siegen, Dietz and Hadamar in exchange for the Duchy 
of Luxemburg. 

The proceedings of the inharmonious Congress of Vienna were, 
however, rudely interrupted by the sudden return of Napoleon from 
Elba. Weary of waiting for a formal recognition of his position, 
William now (March 15, 18 15) issued a proclamation in which he 
assumed the title of King of the Netherlands and Duke of Luxem- 
burg. No protest was made ; and the fait accompli was duly accepted 
by the Powers (May 23). The first act of the king was to call upon 
all his subjects, Dutch and Belgians alike, to unite in opposing the 
common foe. This call to arms led to a considerable force under 
the command of the hereditary prince being able to join the small 
British army, which Wellington had hurriedly collected for the 
defence of Brussels. The sudden invasion of Belgium by Napoleon 
(June 14) took his adversaries by surprise, for the Anglo-Netherland 
forces were distributed in different cantonments and were separated 
from the Prussian army under Blijcher, which had entered Belgium 
from the east. Napoleon in person attacked and defeated Bliicher 
at Ligny on June 16; and on the same day a French force under 
Ney was, after a desperate encounter, held in check by the British 
and Dutch regiments, which had been pushed forward to Quatre 
Bras. Bliicher retreated to Wavre and Wellington to Waterloo on 
the following day. The issue of the battle of Waterloo, which took 

24 — 2 



372 THE FORMATION OF THE 

pi ace on June i8, is well known. The Belgian contingent did not 
pla y a distinguished part at Waterloo, but it would be unfair to 
plac e to their discredit any lack of steadiness that was shown. 
The se Belgian troops were all old soldiers of Napoleon, to whom 
they were attached, and in whose invincibility they believed. The 
Prin ce of Orange distinguished himself by great courage both at 
Qua tre Bras and Waterloo. 

Wi Uiam, after his assumption of the regal title, at once proceeded 
to reg ularise his position by carrying out that necessary modification 
of the Dutch Fundamental Law to which he was pledged by the 
Eight Articles. He accordingly summoned a Commission of twenty- 
four members, half Dutch and half Belgian, Catholics and Pro- 
testants being equally represented, which on April 22 met under the 
presidency of Van Hogendorp. Their activity was sharpened by 
the threat of French invasion, and in three months (July 18) their 
difficult task was accomplished. The new Fundamental Law made 
no change in the autocratic powers conferred on the king. The 
executive authority remained wholly in his hands. The States- 
General were now to consist of two Chambers, but the First 
Chamber was a nominated Chamber. It contained forty to sixty 
members appointed by the king for life. The Second Chamber of 
no members, equally divided between north and south, i.e. fifty- 
five Dutch and fifty-five Belgian representatives, was elected under 
a very restricted franchise by the seventeen provinces into which 
the whole kingdom was divided. The ordinary budget was voted 
for ten years, and it was only extraordinary expenses which had to 
be considered annually. The other provisions strictly followed the 
principles and the liberties guaranteed in advance by the Eight 
Articles. 

The new Fundamental Law was presented to the Dutch States- 
General on August 8, and was approved by a unanimous vote. Very 
different was its reception in Belgium. The king had summoned 
a meeting of 1603 notables to Brussels, of these 1323 were present. 
The majority were hostile. It had been strongly urged by the Belgian 
delegates on the Commission that the Belgic provinces, with three 
and a half millions of inhabitants, ought to return to the Second 
Chamber of the States- General a number of members proportion- 
ately greater than the Dutch provinces, which had barely two 
millions. The Dutch on their part argued that their country had 



KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS, 1814-1815 373 

been an independent State for two centuries and possessed a large 
colonial empire, while Belgium had always been under foreign rule, 
and had now been added to Holland "as an increase of territory." 
It was finally arranged, however, that the representation of the 
northern and southern portions of the new kingdom should be equal, 
55 each. Belgian public opinion loudly protested, especially as the 55 
Belgian deputies included four representatives of Luxemburg, which 
had been created a separate State under the personal rule of 
King William. Still more bitter and determined was the opposition 
of the powerful clerical party to the principle of reUgious equaHty. 
About 99 per cent, of the Belgian population was Catholic; and 
the bishops were very suspicious of what might be the effect of this 
principle in the hands of an autocratic Calvinist king, supported 
by the predominant Protestant majority in Holland. A further 
grievance was that the heavy public debt incurred by Holland 
should be made a common burden. 

Considerable pressure was brought to bear upon the notables, 
but without avail. The Fundamental Law was rejected by 796 votes 
to 527. Confronted with this large hostile majority, the king took 
upon himself to reverse the decision by an arbitrary and dishonest 
manipulation of the return. He chose to assume that the 280 
notables who had not voted were in favour of the Law, and added 
their votes to the minorit}-. He then declared that 126 votes had 
been wrongly given in opposition to the principle of reHgious 
equality, which, by the Second of the Eight Articles approved by 
the Powers was binding and fundamental to the Union, and he 
then not only deducted them from the majority, but added them 
also to the minority. He then announced that the Fundamental 
Law had been accepted by a majority of 263 votes. Such an act of 
chicanery was not calculated to make the relations between north 
and south work smoothly. Having thus for reasons of state 
summarily dealt with the decision of the Belgian notables, William 
(September 26), made his state entry into Brussels and took his oath 
to the Constitution. 

Already the Congress of Vienna had given the official sanction 
of the Powers to the creation of the kingdom of the Netherlands 
by a treaty signed at Paris on May 31,1815. By this treaty the whole 
of the former Austrian Netherlands (except the province of 
Luxemburg) together with the territory which before 1795 had 



374 THE FORMATION OF THE 

been ruled by the prince-bishops of Liege, the Duchy of Bouillon 
and several small pieces of territory were added to Holland ; and 
the new State thus created was placed under the sovereignty of the 
head of the House of Orange-Nassau. As stated above, however, 
it had been necessary in making these arrangements to conciliate 
Prussian claims for aggrandisement in the cis-Rhenan provinces. 
This led to a number of complicated transactions. William ceded 
to Prussia his ancient hereditary Nassau principalities — Dillenburg, 
Dietz, Siegen and Hadamar. The equivalent which William 
received was the sovereignty of Luxemburg, which for this 
purpose was severed from the Belgian Netherlands, of which it had 
been one of the provinces since the time of the Burgundian dukes, 
and was erected into a Grand-Duchy. Further than this, the Grand- 
Duchy was made one of the states of the Germanic Confederation ; 
and the town of Luxemburg was declared to be a federal fortress, 
the garrison to consist of Prussian and Dutch detachments under 
a Prussian commandant. There was a double object in this trans- 
action: (i) to preserve to the Grand-Duke his rights and privileges 
as a German prince, (2) to secure the defence of this important 
borderland against French attack. Another complication arose from 
the fact that in the 14th century the House of Nassau had been 
divided into two branches, Walram and Otto, the younger branch 
being that of which the Prince of Orange was the head. But by a 
family-pact^, agreed upon in 1735 and renewed in 1783, the 
territorial possessions of either line in default of male-heirs had 
to pass to the next male-agnate of the other branch. This pact 
therefore, by virtue of the exchange that had taken place, applied 
to the new Grand-Duchy. It is necessary here to explain what took 
place in some detail, for this arbitrary wrenching of Luxemburg 
from its historical position as an integral part of the Netherlands 
was to have serious and disconcerting consequences in the near 
future. 

The new kingdom of the Netherlands naturally included 
Luxemburg, so that William was a loser rather than a gainer by 
the cession of his Nassau possessions; but his close relation by 
descent and marriage with the Prussian Royal House made him 
anxious to meet the wishes of a power on whose friendship he 
relied. All evidence also points to the conclusion that in accepting 

* Nassauischer Erbverein. 



KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS, 1814-1815 375 

the personal sovereignty of the Grand- Duchy he had no intention 
of treating Luxemburg otherwise than as part of his kingdom. The 
Fundamental Law was made to apply to Luxemburg, in the same 
way as to Brabant or Flanders; and of the 55 members allotted 
to the Belgic provinces, four were representatives of the Grand- 
Duchy, which was subject to the same legislation and taxes as the 
kingdom. At first the king had thought of nominating his second 
son Frederick as his successor in Luxemburg, but he changed his 
mind and gave him an indemnity elsewhere ; and he himself states 
the reason, "since we have judged it advisable (convenable) in the 
general interest of the kingdom to unite the Grand-Duchy to it and 
to place it under the same constitutional laws." 

The boundaries of the new kingdom and of the Grand-Duchy 
were fixed by the treaty of May 31, 181 5, and confirmed by the 
General Act of the Congress of Vienna. By this treaty Prussia 
received a considerable part of the old province of Luxemburg as 
well as slices of territory taken from the bishopric of Liege. A 
separate boundary treaty a year later (June 26, 181 6) between the 
Netherlands and Prussia filled in the details of that of 181 5; and 
that Prussia herself acquiesced in the fusion of the kingdom and 
the Grand-Duchy is shown by the fact that the boundary between 
Prussia and Luxemburg is three times referred to in the later treaty 
as the boundary between Prussia and the kingdom of the Nether- 
lands. 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS— UNION OF 
HOLLAND AND BELGIUM, 1815-1830 

The autocratic powers that were conferred upon King William by 
the Fundamental Law rendered his personality a factor of the 
utmost importance in the difficult task which lay before him. 
William's character was strong and self-confident, and he did not 
shrink from responsibility. His intentions were of the best; he was 
capable, industrious, a good financier, sparing himself no trouble 
in mastering the details of State business. But he had the defects 
of his qualities, being self-opinionated, stubborn and inclined, as 
in the matter of the vote of the Belgian notables, to override 
opposition with a high hand. He had at the beginning of his reign 
the good fortune of being on the best of terms with Castlereagh, 
the British Foreign Minister. To Castlereagh more than to any 
other statesman the kingdom of the Netherlands owed its existence. 
The Peace of Paris saw Great Britain in possession by conquest of 
all the Dutch colonies. By the Convention of London (August 13, 
1 8 14), which was Castlereagh 's work, it was arranged that all the 
captured colonies, including Java, the richest and most valuable 
of all, should be restored, with the exception of the Cape of Good 
Hope and the Guiana colonies — Demerara, Berbice and Essequibo. 
In the latter the plantations had almost all passed into British hands 
during the eighteen years since their conquest ; and Cape Colony 
was retained as essential for the security of the sea-route to India. 
But these surrenders were not made without ample compensation. 
Great Britain contributed ^^2 ,000 ,000 towards erecting fortresses 
along the French frontier; £1,000,000 to satisfy a claim of Sweden 
with regard to the island of Guadeloupe; and £3,000,000 or one- 
half of a debt from Holland to Russia, i.e. a sum of £6,000,000 in all. 
One of the most urgent problems with which the Sovereign- 
Prince had to deal on his accession to power was the state of the 
finances. Napoleon by a stroke of the pen had reduced the public 
debt to one- third of its amount. William, however, was too honest 
a man to avail himself of the opportunity for partial repudiation 



UNION OF HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 377 

that was offered him. He recalled into existence the two- thirds on 
which no interest had been paid and called it "deferred debt" 
{uitgestelde schuld) ; the other third received the name of "working 
debt" {werkelijke schuld). The figures stood at 1200 million florins 
and 600 million florins respectively. Every year four millions of the 
" working debt " were to be paid off, and a similar amount from the 
"deferred" added to it. Other measures taken in 18 14 for effecting 
economies were of little avail, as the campaign of Waterloo in the 
following year added 40 million florins to the debt. Heavier taxation 
had to be imposed, but even then the charges for the debt made it 
almost impossible to avoid an annual deficit in the budget. It was 
one of the chief grievances of the Belgians that they were called 
upon to share the burden of a crushing debt which they had not 
incurred. The voting of ways and means for ten years gave the king 
the control over all ordinary finance; it was only extraordinary 
expenditure that had to be submitted annually to the representa- 
tives of the people. 

The dislike of the Catholic hierarchy in Belgium to Dutch rule 
had been intensified by the manner in which the king had dealt 
with the vote of the notables. Their leader was Maurice de Broglie, 
Bishop of Ghent, a Frenchman by birth. His efforts by speech and 
by pen to stir up active enmity in Belgium to the union aroused 
William^s anger, and he resolved to prosecute him. It was an act 
of courage rather than of statesmanship, but the king could not 
brook opposition. Broglie refused to appear before the court and 
fled to France. In his absence he was condemned to banishment 
and the payment of costs. The powerful clerical party regarded 
him as a martyr and continued to criticise the policy of the Pro- 
testant king with watchful and hostile suspicion. Nor were the 
Belgian liberal party more friendly. They did not indeed support 
the clerical claim to practical predominance in the State, but they 
were patriotic Belgians who had no love for Holland and resented 
the thought that they were being treated as a dependency of their 
northern neighbours. They were at one with the clericals in claiming 
that the Belgian representation in the Second Chamber of the 
States- General should be proportional to their population. But 
this grievance might have been tolerated had the king shown any 
inclination to treat his Belgian subjects on a footing of equality 
with the Dutch. He was, as will be seen, keenly interested in the 



378 THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

welfare and progress of the south, but in spirit and in his conduct 
of affairs he proved himself to be an out-and-out Hollander. The 
provision of the Fundamental Law that the seat of government and 
the meetings of the States- General should be alternately from year 
to year at the Hague and at Brussels was never carried out. All the 
ministries were permanently located at the Hague ; and of the seven 
ministers who held office in 1816 only one, the Duke d'Ursel, was a 
Belgian, and he held the post of Minister of Public Works and 
Waterways. Fourteen years later (at the time of the revolt) six out 
of seven were still northerners. The military establishments were 
all in Holland, and nearly all the diplomatic and civil posts were 
given to Dutchmen. Nor was this merely due to the fact that, when 
the union took place, Holland already possessed an organised 
government and a supply of experienced officials, while Belgium 
lacked both. On the contrary, the policy of the king remained fixed 
and unwavering. In 1830 out of 39 diplomatists 30 were Dutch. 
All the chief military posts were filled by Dutchmen. Nor was it 
different in the civil service. In the home department there were 
117 Dutch, II Belgians; in the war department 102 Dutch, 
3 Belgians; in finance 59 Dutch, 5 Belgians. Such a state of things 
was bound to cause resentment. Parties in the Belgic provinces 
were in the early days of the Union divided very much as they have 
been in recent years. The Catholic or Clerical party had its strong- 
hold in the two Flanders and Antwerp, i.e. in the Flemish-speaking 
districts. In Walloon Belgium the Liberals had a considerable 
majority. The opposition to the Fundamental Law came over- 
whelmingly from Flemish Belgium ; the support from Liege, Namur, 
Luxemburg and other Walloon districts. But the sense of injustice 
brought both parties together, so that in the representative Chamber 
the Belgian members were soon found voting solidly together, as 
a permanent opposition, while the Dutch voted en bloc for the 
government. As the representation of north and south was equal, 
55 members each, the result would have been a deadlock, but there 
were always two or three Belgians who held government offices; 
and these were compelled, on pain of instant dismissal, to vote for 
a government measure or at least to abstain. Thus the king could 
always rely on a small but constant majority, and by its aid he did 
not hesitate to force through financial and legislative proposals in 
the teeth of Belgian opposition. 



UNION OF HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 379 

It is only fair, however, to the arbitrary king to point out how 
earnestly he endeavoured to promote the material and industrial 
welfare of the whole land, and to encourage to the best of his power 
literary, scientific and educational progress. In Holland the 
carrying- trade, which had so long been the chief source of the 
country's wealth, had been utterly ruined by Napoleon's Continental 
System. On the other hand, Belgian industries, which had been 
flourishing through the strict embargo placed upon the import of 
British goods, were now threatened with British competition. The 
steps taken by the energy and initiative of the king were, con- 
sidering the state of the national finances, remarkable in the variety 
of their aims and the results that they achieved. The old Amsterdam 
Bank was transformed into a Bank of the Netherlands. A number 
of canals were planned and constructed. Chief among these was 
the North Holland Canal, connecting Amsterdam with the Helder. 
The approaches to Rotterdam were improved, so that this port 
became the meeting-point of sea-traffic from England and river- 
traffic by the Rhine from Germany. But both these ports were 
quickly overshadowed by the rapid recovery of Antwerp, now that 
the Scheldt was free and open to commerce. Other important canals, 
begun and wholly or in part constructed, during this period were 
the Zuid-Willemsvaart, the Zederik, the Appeldoorn and the Voorne 
canals. Water conmiunication was not so necessary in the south as 
in the north, but care was there also bestowed upon the canals, 
especially upon the canal of Terneuzen connecting Ghent with the 
western Scheldt, and many highways were constructed. To restore 
the prosperity of the Dutch carrying- trade, especially that with 
their East Indies, in 1824 ^ Company — de Nederlandsche Handels- 
maatschappij — was founded; and at the same time a commercial 
treaty was concluded with Great Britain, by which both nations 
were to enjoy free trade with each other's East Indian possessions. 
The Handelsmaatschappij had a capital of 37 million florins ; to this 
the king contributed four millions and guaranteed to the share- 
holders for 20 years a dividend of 4J per cent. The Company at first 
worked at a loss, and in 1831 William had to pay four million florins 
out of his privy purse to meet his guarantee. This was partly due 
to the set-back of a revolt in Java which lasted some years. 

Agriculture received equal attention. Marshy districts were 
impoldered or turned into pasture-land. More especially did the 



38o THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

Maatschappij van Weldadigheid, a society founded in 1818 by 
General van den Bosch with the king's strong support, undertake 
the task of reclaiming land with the special aim of relieving poverty. 
No less zealous was the king for the prosperity of Belgian industries ; 
Ghent with its cotton factories and sugar refineries, Tournai with 
its porcelain industry, and Liege with its hardware, all were the 
objects of royal interest. The great machine factory at Seraing near 
Liege under the management of an Englishman, Cockerill, owed 
its existence to the king. Nor was William's care only directed to 
the material interests of his people. In 181 5 the University at 
Utrecht was restored ; and in Belgium, besides Louvain, two new 
foundations for higher education were in 1816 created at Ghent 
and Liege. Royal Academies of the Arts were placed at Amsterdam 
and Antwerp, which were to bear good fruit. His attention was also 
given to the much-needed improvement of primary education, 
which in the south was almost non-existent in large parts of the 
country. Here the presence of a number of illiterate dialects was 
a great obstacle and was the cause of the unfortunate effort to make 
literary Dutch into a national language for his whole realm. 

Nevertheless the king's political mistakes (of which the attempted 
compulsory use of Dutch was one) rendered all his thoughtful 
watchfulness over his people's welfare unavailing. Great as were 
the autocratic powers conferred upon the sovereign, he over- 
stepped them. Plans, in which he was interested, he carried out 
without consulting the States-General. His ministers he regarded 
as bound to execute his orders. If their views differed from his, 
they were dismissed. This was the fate even of Van Hogendorp, to 
whom hfe owed so much ; Roell and Falck also had to make way for 
less competent but more obsequious ministers. 

The chief difficulty with which the king had to contend through- 
out this period was the ceaseless and irreconcilable opposition of 
the Catholic hierarchy and clergy to the principle of absolute 
religious equality established by the Fundamental Law (Articles 
cxc-cxciii). Their leader, Maurice de Broglie, Bishop of Ghent, 
actually published a jugement doctrinal in which he declared that 
the taking of the oath to the Constitution was an act of treason to 
the Catholic Church. In this defiance to the government he had the 
support of the Pope, who only permitted the Count de Mean to 
take the oath on his appointment to the Archbishopric of Malines 



UNION OF HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 381 

on the understanding that he held Articles cxc-cxciii to refer only 
to civil matters. From this time to take the oath "dans le sens de M. 
Mean" became with the ultra-clerical party a conmion practice. 

Other measures of the government aroused Catholic hostility. 
In this year, 1819, a decree forbade the holding of more than two 
religious processions in a year. In such a country as Belgium this 
restriction was strongly resented. But the establishment in 1825 by 
the king of a Collegium Philosophicum at Louvain, at which all 
candidates for the priesthood were by royal decree required (after 
1826) to have a two-years' course before proceeding to an episcopal 
seminary, met with strenuous resistance. The instruction was in 
ancient languages, history, ethics and canon-law; and the teachers 
were nominated by the king. The first effect of this decree was that 
young men began to seek education in foreign seminaries. Another 
royal decree at once forbade this, and all youths were ordered to 
proceed either to the Collegium or to one of the High Schools of 
the land ; unless they did so, access to the priesthood or to any 
public office was barred to them. This was perhaps the most serious 
of all the king's mistakes. He miscalculated both the strength and 
the sincerity of the opposition he thus deliberately courted. His 
decrees were doomed to failure. The bishops on their part refused 
to admit to their seminaries or to ordination anyone who attended 
the Collegium Philosophicum. The king, in the face of the irrevocable 
decision of the Belgian hierarchy, found himself in an untenable 
position. He could not compel the bishops to ordain candidates for 
Holy Orders, and his decrees were therefore a dead letter; nor on 
the other hand could he trample upon the convictions of the vast 
majority of his Belgian subjects by making admission to the priest- 
hood impossible. He had to give way and to send a special envoy — 
De Celles — to the Pope in 1827 to endeavour to negotiate a Con- 
cordat. It was accomplished. By Article iii of the Concordat, there 
were to be eight bishops in the Netherlands instead of five. They 
were to be chosen by the Pope, but the king was to have the right 
of objection, and they were required to take the oath of allegiance. 
The course at the Collegium Philosophicum was made optional, 
William thus yielded on practically all the points at issue, but 
prided himself on having obtained the right of rejecting a papal 
nominee. The Pope, however, in an allocution made no mention 
of this right, and declared that the decree about the Collegium was 



382 THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

annulled, and that in matters of education the bishops would act 
in accordance with instructions from Rome. The government 
immediately issued a confidential notice to the governors of 
provinces, that the carrying-out of the Concordat was indefinitely 
postponed. Thus the eflPort at conciliation ended in the humiliation 
of the king, and the triumph of the astute diplomacy of the Vatican. 

The financial situation, as we have seen, was from the outset 
full of difficulty. The king was personally parsimonious, but his 
many projects for the general welfare of the land involved large 
outlay, and the consequence was an annual average deficit of seven 
million florins. At first the revenue was raised by the increase of 
customs and excise, including colonial imports. This caused much 
dissatisfaction in Holland, especially when duties were placed on 
coifee and sugar. The complaint was that thus an undue share of 
taxation fell on the maritime north. In order to lighten these 
duties on colonial wares, other taxes had to be imposed. In 1821 
accordingly it was proposed to meet the deficit by two most unwise 
and obnoxious taxes, known as mouture and abhatage. The first was 
on ground corn, the second on the carcases of beasts, exacted at 
the mill or the slaughter-house — in other words on bread and on 
butcher's meat. Both were intensely unpopular, and the mouture in 
particular fell with especial severity on the Belgian working classes 
and peasantry, who consumed much more bread per head than the 
Dutch. Nevertheless by ministerial pressure the bill was passed 
(July 21, 1 821) by a narrow majority of four — 55 to 51. All the 
minority were Belgians, only two Belgians voted with the majority. 
It is inconceivable how the government could have been so im- 
politic as to impose these taxes in face of such a display of national 
animosity. T\\q mouture only produced a revenue of 5,500,000 fl.; 
the abbatage 2,500,000 fl. 

This amount, though its exaction pressed heavily on the very 
poor, afforded little relief; and to meet recurring deficits the only 
resource was borrowing. To extricate the national finances from 
ever-increasing difficulties the Amortisatie-Syndikaat was created 
in December, 1822. Considerable sources of income from various 
public domains and from tolls passed into the hands of the seven 
members of the Syndicate, all of whom were bound to secrecy, 
both as to its public and private transactions. Its effect was to 
diminish still further the control of the Representative Chamber 



UNION OF HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 383 

over the national finances. The Syndicate did indeed assist the State, 
for between 1823 and 1829 it advanced no less than 58,885,443 fl. 
to meet the deficits in the budget, but the means by which it 
achieved this result were not revealed. 

Yet another device to help the government in its undertakings 
was the million de V industries which was voted every year, as an 
extraordinary charge, but of which no account was ever given. That 
this sum was beneficially used for the assistance of manufacturing 
and industrial enterprise, as at Seraing and elsewhere, and that it 
contributed to the growing prosperity of the southern provinces, is 
certain. But the needless mystery which surrounded its expenditure 
led to the suspicion that it was used as a fund for secret service and 
political jobbery. 

The autocratic temper of the king showed itself not merely in 
keeping the control of finance largely in his own hands, but also 
in carrying out a series of measures arousing popular discontent by 
simple arretes or decrees of the Council of State without consulta- 
tion with the representative Chamber. Such were the decree of 
November 6, 18 14, abolishing trial by jury and making certain other 
changes in judicial proceedings; that of April 15, 181 5, imposing 
great restrictions on the liberty of the press ; that of September 15, 
1 819, making Dutch the official language of the country; that of 
June 25, 1825, establishing the Collegium Philosophicum ; and finally 
that of June 21, 1830, making the Hague the seat of the supreme 
court of justice. All these produced profound discontent and had a 
cumulative effect. 

The language decree of 18 19 was tentative, declaring a knowledge 
of Dutch obligatory for admission to all public offices, but it was 
followed by a much more stringent decree in 1822 by which, in the 
two Flanders, South Brabant and Limburg, Dutch was to be used 
in the law-courts and in all public acts and notices. Although the 
operation of this decree was confined to the Flemish-speaking 
districts, it must be remembered that, from the time of the Bur- 
gundian dukes right through the Spanish and Austrian periods, 
French had always been the official language of the country, the 
upper classes only spoke French, and with few exceptions the 
advocates could only plead in that language. This was a great 
hardship upon the Belgian bar, which would have been greatly 
increased had the royal decree (June 21, 1830), placing the court of 



384 THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

appeal for the whole kingdom at the Hague, been carried into 
effect. 

More serious in its results was the infringement of Art. ccxxvii 
of the Fundamental Law guaranteeing liberty of the press. The 
return of Napoleon from Elba, and the imminent danger to which 
the, as yet, unorganised kingdom of the Netherlands was exposed, 
led to the issue of an arrete of the severest character. By it all persons 
publishing news of any kind, or giving information injurious to the 
State, or writing or distributing political pamphlets, were to be 
brought before a special tribunal of nine judges holding office at 
the king's pleasure ; and, if condemned, were liable to be sentenced 
to exposure in the pillory, deprivation of civic rights, branding, 
imprisonment, and fines varying from 100 to 10,000 francs. This 
harsh measure was possibly justifiable in an extreme emergency 
upon the plea that it was necessary for the safety of the State. When 
the danger was over, and the Fundamental Law was passed, there 
was no excuse for its further maintenance on the Statute-book. Yet 
before this court Abbe de Foere was summoned for having defended 
in the Spectateur Beige the jugement doctrinal of Bishop de Broglie, 
and he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. In the following 
year, 181 8, the government obtained the approval of the States- 
General (with slight modification) for the continuance of this war- 
time censorship of the press. The penalties remained, but the court 
consisted of a judge and four assessors, all government nominees. 
Under this law a Brussels advocate. Van der Straeten, was fined 
3000 fi. for a brochure attacking the ministers; and several other 
advocates were disbarred for protesting that this sentence was in 
conflict with the Fundamental Law. Prosecutions henceforth 
followed prosecutions, and the press was gagged. 

As a result of these press persecutions, the two Belgian political 
parties, the clericals and the liberals, poles apart as they were in 
their principles, drew closer together. All differences of religious 
and political creed were fused in a common sense of national 
grievances under what was regarded as a foreign tyranny. This 
brought about in 1828 the formation of the Union ^ an association 
for the co-operation of Belgians of all parties in defence of liberty 
of worship, liberty of instruction and liberty of the press. The 
ultra-clericals, who looked to the Vatican for their guidance, and 
the advanced liberals who professed the principles of the French 



UNION OF HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 385 

Revolution were thus by the force of events led on step by step to 
convert an informal into a formal alliance. The Abbe de Foere in 
the Spectateur and MM. D'Ellougue and Donker in the Ohservateur 
had been for some years advocating united action ; and it was their 
success in winning over to their side the support and powerful pen 
of Louis de Potter, a young advocate and journalist of Franco- 
radical sympathies, that the Union, as a party, was actually effected. 
From this time the onslaughts in the press became more and more 
violent and embittered, and stirred up a spirit of unrest throughout 
the country. Petitions began to pour in against the mouture and 
abhatage taxes and other unpopular measures, especially from the 
Walloon provinces. These were followed by a National Petition 
signed by representatives of every class of the community asking 
for redress of grievances, but it met vnth no response from the 
unyielding king. He had in the early summer of this year, 1828, 
made a tour in Belgium and had in several towns, especially in 
Antwerp and Ghent, met with a warm reception, which led him 
to underestimate the extent and seriousness of the existing dis- 
content. At Liege, a centre of Walloon liberalism, he was annoyed 
by a number of petitions being presented to him ; and, in a moment 
of irritation, he described the conduct of those who there protested 
against "pretended grievances" as infamous, "une conduite in- 
fame." The words gave deep offence ; and the incident called forth a 
parody of the League of the Beggars in 1566, an Order of Infamy 
being started with a medal bearing the motto fidelesjtisqu'd rinfamie. 
The movement spread rapidly, but it remains a curious fact that 
the animosity of the Belgians, as yet, was directed against the Dutch 
ministers (especially Van Maanen the Minister of Justice) and the 
Dutch people, whose overbearing attitude was bitterly resented, 
rather than against the king or the House of Orange. William's 
good deeds for the benefit of the country were appreciated; his 
arbitrary measures in contravention to the Fundamental Law were 
attributed chiefly to his bad advisers. 

The month of December, 1829, ^^^ however to bring the king 
and his Belgian subjects into violent collision. A motion was brought 
forward in the Second Chamber (December 8) by M. Charles de 
Broukere, an eminent Belgian liberal supported by the Catholics 
under the leadership of M. de Gerlache, for the abolition of the 
hated Press Law of 181 5. The motion was defeated by the solid 

£. U. H. 25 



386 THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS 

Dutch vote, supplemented by the support of seven Belgians. The 
decennial budget w^as due, and opposition to it was threatened un- 
less grievances w^ere remedied — the cry was " point de redressements 
de griefs, point d'argent." On December ii came a royal message 
to the States- General which, while promising certain concessions 
regarding the taxes, the Collegium Philosophicum and the language 
decree, stated in unequivocal terms the principle of royal absolutism. 
To quote the words of a competent observer of these events : 

The message declared in substance that the constitution was an act of 
condescension on the part of the throne ; that the king had restrained 
rather than carried to excess the rights of his house ; that the press had 
been guilty of sowing discord and confusion throughout the State ; and 
that the opposition was but the fanatic working of a few misguided men, 
who, forgetting the benefits they enjoyed, had risen up in an alarming 
and scandalous manner against a paternal government^. 

The Minister of Justice, Van Maanen, on the next day issued a 
circular calling upon all civil officials to signify their adherence to 
the principles of the message within 24 hours. Several functionaries, 
who had taken part in the petition-agitation, were summarily 
dismissed ; and prosecutions against the press were instituted with 
renewed energy. From this time Van Maanen became the special 
object of Belgian hatred. 

The threat of the Belgian deputies to oppose the decennial budget 
was now carried out. At the end of December the ministerial 
proposals were brought before the States- General. The expenditure 
was sanctioned, the ways and means to meet it were rejected by 
55 votes to 52. The Finance Minister in this emergency was obliged 
to introduce fresh estimates for one year only, from which the 
mouture and abhatage taxes were omitted. This was passed v^dthout 
opposition, but in his vexation at this rebuff the king acted un- 
worthily of his position by issuing an arrete (January 8, 1830) 
depriving six deputies, who had voted in the majority, of their 
official posts. Meanwhile the virulence of the attacks in the press 
against the king and his ministers from the pens of a number of able 
and unscrupulous journalists were too daring and offensive to be 
overlooked by any government. Foremost in the bitterness of his 
onslaught was Louis de Potter, whose Lettre de Demophile au Rot 
was throughout a direct challenge to the autocratic claims advanced 

^ Charles White, The Belgic Revolution, 1835, vol. i, p. 106. 



UNION OF HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 387 

by the royal message. Nor was De Potter content only with words. 
An appeal dated December 1 1 , of which he and his friend Tielemans 
were originators, appeared (January 31, 1830) in seventeen news- 
papers, for raising a national subscription to indemnify the deputies 
who had been ejected from their posts and salaries for voting 
against the budget. Proceedings were taken against De Potter and 
Tielemans, and also against Barthels, editor of the Catholique, and 
the printer, De Neve, and all were sentenced by the court to banish- 
ment — De Potter for eight years, Tielemans and Barthels for seven 
years, DeNeve for five years. These men had all committed offences 
which the government were fully justified in punishing, for their 
language had passed the limits not only of good order but of 
decency, and was subversive of all authority. Nevertheless they 
were regarded by their Belgian compatriots as political martyrs 
suffering for the cause of their country's Hberties. Their con- 
demnation was attributed to Van Maanen, already the object of 
general detestation. 

The ministry had meanwhile taken the wise step of starting an 
organ, the National, at Brussels to take their part in the field of 
controversy. But in the circumstances it was an act of almost 
inconceivable folly to select as the editor a certain Libri-Bagnano, 
a man of Italian extraction, who, as it was soon discovered by his 
opponents, had twice suffered heavy sentences in France as a 
forger. He was a brilliant and caustic writer, well able to carry the 
polemical war into his adversaries' camp. But his antecedents were 
against him, and he aroused a hatred second only to the aversion 
felt for Van Maanen. 

We have now arrived at the eve of the Belgian Revolt, which had 
its actual origin in a riot. But the riot was not the cause of the revolt ; 
it was but the spark which brought about an explosion, the materials 
for which had been for years preparing. The French secret agent, 
Julian, reports a conversation which took place between the king 
and Count Bylandt on July 20, 1823^. The following extract proves 
that, so early as this date, WilUam had begun to perceive the im- 
possibility of the situation : 

I say it and I repeat it often to Clancarty (the British Minister) that I 
should love much better to have my Holland quite alone. I should be 

^ Correspondance secrete des Pays-Bas. Julian received his report of the 
conversation direct from Count Bylandt by permission of the king. 

25 — 2 



388 THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS 

then a hundred times happier.... When I am exerting myself to make 
a whole of this country, a party, which in collusion with the foreigner 
never ceases to gain ground, is working to disunite it. Besides the allies 
have not given me this kingdom to submit it to every kind of influence. 
This situation cannot last. 

Another extract from a despatch of the French Minister at the 
Hague, Lamoussaye, dated December 26, 1828, depicts a state of 
things in the relations between the two peoples, tending sooner or 
later to make a political separation of some kind inevitable : 

The Belgian hates the Hollander and he (the Hollander) despises the 
Belgian, besides which he assumes an infinite hauteur^ both from his 
national character, by the creations of his industry and by the memories 
of his history. Disdained by their neighbour of the North, governed by 
a prince whose confidence they do not possess, hindered in the exercise 
of their worship, and, as they say, in the enjoyment of their liberties, 
overburdened with taxes, having but a share in the National Repre- 
sentation disproportionate to the population of the South, the Belgians 
ask themselves whether they have a country, and are restless in a painful 
situation, the outcome of which they seek vainly to discover^. 

From an intercepted letter from Louvain, dated July 30, 1829^: 

What does one see ? Hesitation uncertainty, embarrassment and fear ia 
the march of the government ; organisation, re-organisation and finally 
disorganisation of all and every administration. Again a rude shock and 
the machine crumbles. 

A true forecast of coming events. 

^ From Van Maanen's private papers. See Colenbrander's Belgische Om^ 
wenteling, p. 139. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION, 1830-1842 

During the last days of July, 1830, came the revolution at Paris 
that overthrew Charles X and placed the Duke of Orleans at the 
head of a constitutional monarchy with the title of Louis Philippe, 
King of the French. The Belgian liberals had always felt drawn 
towards France rather than Holland, and several of the more 
influential among them were in Paris during the days of July. 
Through their close intercourse with their friends in Brussels the 
news of all that had occurred spread rapidly, and was eagerly dis- 
cussed. Probably at this time few contemplated the complete 
separation of Belgium from Holland, but rather looked to the 
northern and southern provinces becoming administratively 
autonomous under the same crown. This indeed appeared to be 
the only practical solution of the impasse which had been reached. 
Even had the king met the complaints of the Belgians by large 
concessions, had he dismissed Van Maanen, removed Libri-Bagnano 
from the editorship of the National, and created a responsible 
ministry — ^which he had no intention of doing — he could not have 
granted the demand for a representation of the south in the Second 
Chamber proportionate to the population. For this would have 
meant that the position of Holland would have henceforth been 
subordinate to that of Belgium ; and to this the Dutch, proud of 
their history and achievements, would never have submitted. It 
had been proved that amalgamation was impossible, but the king 
personally was popular with those large sections of the Belgian 
mercantile and industrial population whose prosperity was so 
largely due to the royal care and paternal interest; and, had he con- 
sented to the setting-up of a separate administration at Brussels, 
he might by a conciliatory attitude have retained the loyalty of his 
Belgian subjects. 

He did none of these things ; but, when in August, he and his two 
sons paid a visit to Brussels at a time when the town was celebrating 
with festivities the holding of an exhibition of national industry, 
he was well received and was probably quite unaware of the 



390 THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 

imminence of the storm that was brewing. It had been intended 
to close the exhibition by a grand display of fireworks on the 
evening of August 23, and to have a general illumination on the 
king's birthday (August 24). But the king had hurried back to the 
Hague to keep his birthday, and during the preceding days there were 
abundant signs of a spirit of revolutionary ferment. Inscriptions 
were found on blank walls — Down with Van Maanen ; Death to the 
Dutch ; Down with Libri-Bagnano and the National', and, more omi- 
nous still, leaflets were distributed containing the words le 23 Aout, 
feu d^ artifice', le 24 Aout, anniversaire du Rot; le 25 Aout, revolution. 

In consequence of these indications of subterranean unrest, 
which were well known to Baron van der Fosse, the civil governor of 
Brabant, and to M. Kuyff, the head of the city police, the municipal 
authorities weakly decided on the ground of unfavourable weather 
to postpone the fireworks and the illumination. The evening of the 
23rd, as it turned out, was exceedingly fine. At the same time the 
authorities permitted, on the evening of the 25th, the first perform- 
ance of an opera by Scribe and Auber, entitled La Muette de 
Portici, which had been previously proscribed. The hero, Masaniello, 
headed a revolt at Naples in 1648 against foreign (Spanish) rule. 
The piece was full of patriotic, revolutionary songs likely to arouse 
popular passion. 

The evening of the performance arrived, and the theatre was 
crowded. The excitement of the audience grew as the play pro- 
ceeded ; and the thunders of applause were taken up by the throng 
which had gathered outside. Finally the spectators rushed out with 
loud cries of vengeance against Libri-Bagnano and Van Maanen, 
in which the mob eagerly joined. Brussels was at that time a chosen 
shelter of political refugees, ready for any excesses; and a terrible 
riot ensued. The house of Van Maanen and the offices of the 
National were attacked, pillaged and burnt. The city was given over 
to wild contusion and anarchy ; and many of the mob secured arms 
by the plunder of the gun-smiths' shops. Meanwhile the military 
authorities delayed action. Several small patrols were surrounded 
and compelled to surrender, while the main body of troops, instead 
of attacking and dispersing the rioters, was withdrawn and stationed 
in front of the royal palace. Thus by the extraordinary passiveness 
of Lieut.- General Bylandt, the military governor of the province, 
and of Major-General Wauthier, commandant of the city, who 



THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 391 

must have been acting under secret orders, the wild outbreak of the 
night began, as the next day progressed and the troops were still 
inactive, to assume more of the character of a revolution. 

This was checked by the action of the municipal authorities and 
certain of the principal inhabitants, who called together the civic- 
guard to protect any further tumultuary attacks by marauders and 
ne'er-do-wells on private property. The guard were joined by 
numbers of volunteers of the better classes and, under the command 
of Baron D'Hoogvoort, were distributed in different quarters of the 
town, and restored order. The French flags, which at first were in 
evidence, were replaced at the Town Hall by the Brabant tricolor — 
red, yellow and black. The royal insignia had in many places been 
torn down, and the Orange cockades had disappeared ; nevertheless 
there was at this time no symptom of an uprising to overthrow the 
dynasty, only a national demand for redress of grievances. Mean- 
while news arrived that reinforcements from Ghent were marching 
upon the city. The notables however informed General Bylandt that 
no troops would be allowed to enter the city without resistance ; and 
he agreed to stop the advance and to keep his own troops in their 
encampment until he received further orders from the Hague. For 
this abandonment of any attempt to re-assert the royal authority 
he has been generally blamed. 

There is no lack of evidence to show that the riot of August 25 
and its consequences were not the work of the popular leaders. The 
correspondence of Gendebien with De Potter at this time, and the 
tone of the Belgian press before and after the outbreak, are proofs 
of this. The Catholique of Ghent (the former organ of Barthels) for 
instance declared: 

There is no salvation for the throne, but in an ample concession of 
our rights. The essential points to be accorded are royal inviolability 
and ministerial responsibility ; the dismissal of Van Maanen ; liberty of 
education and the press; a diminution of taxation... in short, justice and 
liberty in all and for all, in strict conformity with the fundamental law. 

The Coursier des Pays Bas (the former organ of De Potter), after 
demanding the dismissal of Van Maanen as the absolute condition 
of pacification, adds : 

We repeat that we are neither in a state of insurrection nor revolution ; 
all we want is a mitigation of the grievances we have so long endured, and 
some guarantees for a better future. 



392 THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 

In accordance with such sentiments an influential meeting on the 
28th at the Town Hall appointed a deputation of five, headed by 
Alexandre de Gendebien and Felix, Count de Merode, to bear to 
the Idng a loyal address, setting forth the just grievances which had 
led to the Brussels disturbances, and asking respectfully for their 
removal. 

The news of the uprising reached the king on the 27th, and he 
was much affected. At a Council held at the Hague the Prince of 
Orange earnestly besought his father to accept the proffered 
resignation of Van Maanen, and to consider in a conciliatory spirit 
the grievances of the Belgians. But William refused flatly to dismiss 
the minister or to treat with rebels. He gave the prince, however, 
permission to visit Brussels, not armed with powers to act, but 
merely with a mission of enquiry. He also consented to receive 
the deputation from Brussels, and summoned an extraordinary 
meeting of the States-General at the Hague for September 13. 
Troops were at once ordered to move south and to join the camp 
at Vilvoorde, where the regiments sent to reinforce the Brussels 
garrison had been halted. The Prince of Orange and his brother 
Frederick meanwhile had left the Hague and reached Vilvoorde on 
August 3 1 . Here Frederick assumed command of the troops ; and 
Orange sent his aide-de-camp to Baron D'Hoogvoort to invite him 
to a conference at headquarters. The news of the gathering troops 
had aroused immense excitement in the capital ; and it was resolved 
that Hoogvoort, at the head of a representative deputation, should 
go to Vilvoorde to urge the prince to stop any advance of the troops 
on Brussels, as their entrance into the town would be resisted, 
unless the citizens were assured that Van Maanen was dismissed, 
and that the other grievances were removed. They invited Orange 
to come to Brussels attended only by his personal suite, and offered 
to be sureties for his safety. 

The prince made his entry on September i ,the streets being lined 
with the civic guard. He was personally popular, but, possessing 
no powers, he could effect nothing. After three days of parleying 
he returned to the camp, and his mission was a failure. On the same 
day when Orange entered Brussels the deputation of five was received 
by King William at the Hague. His reply to their representations 
was that by the Fundamental Law he had the right to choose 
his ministers, that the principle of ministerial responsibility was 



THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 393 

contrary to the Constitution, and that he would not dismiss 
Van Maanen or deal with any alleged grievances with a pistol at 
his head. 

William, however, despite his uncompromising words, did actually 
accept the resignation of Van Maanen (September 3) ; but when the 
Prince of Orange, returning from his experiences at Brussels, urged 
the necessity of an administrative separation of north and south, 
and offered to return to the Belgian capital if armed with full 
authority to carry it out, his oiler was declined. The king would 
only consent to bring the matter to the consideration of the States- 
General, which was to meet on the 13th. Instead of taking any 
immediate action he issued a proclamation, which in no way faced 
the exigencies of the situation, and was no sooner posted on the 
walls at Brussels than it was torn down and trampled underfoot. 
It is only just to say that the king had behind him the unanimous 
support of the Dutch people, especially the commercial classes. To 
them separation was far preferable to admitting the Belgians to 
that predominant share of the representation which they claimed 
on the ground of their larger population. 

Meanwhile at Brussels, owing to the inaction of the government, 
matters were moving fast. The spirit of revolt had spread to other 
towns, principally in the Walloon provinces. Liege and Lou vain 
were the first to move. Charles Rogier, an advocate by profession 
and a Frenchman by birth, was the leader of the revolt at Liege; 
and such was his fiery ardour that at the head of some 400 men, 
whom he had supplied with arms from the armourer's warehouses, 
he marched to Brussels, and arrived in that disturbed city without 
encountering any Dutch force. The example of Liege was followed 
by Jemappes, Wavre, and by the miners of the Borinage; and 
Brussels was filled with a growing crowd of men filled with a 
revolutionary spirit. Their aim was to proclaim the independence 
of Belgium, and set up a provisional government. 

For such a step even pronounced liberals like Gendebien, Van 
de Weyer and Rouppe, the veteran burgomaster of the city, were 
not yet prepared; and they combined with the moderates. Count 
Felix de Merode and Ferdinand Meeus, to form a Committee of 
Public Safety. They were aided, in the maintenance of order, by 
the two Barons D'Hoogvoort (Emmanuel and Joseph), the first the 
commander of the civic guard, and both popular and influential, 



394 THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 

and by the municipality. While these were still struggling to maintain 
their authority, the States- General had met at the Hague on 
September 13. It was opened by a speech from the king which 
announced his firm determination to maintain law and order in the 
face of revolutionary violence. He had submitted two questions to 
the consideration of the States- General : (i) whether experience 
had shown the necessity for a modification of the Fundamental 
Law; (2) whether any change should be made in the relations 
between the two parts of the kingdom. Both questions were, after 
long debate (September 29) answered in the affirmative ; but, before 
this took place, events at Brussels had already rendered deliberations 
at the Hague futile and useless. 

The contents of the king's speech were no sooner known in 
Brussels than they were used by the revolutionary leaders to stir 
up the passions of the mob by inflammatory harangues. Rogier and 
Ducpetiaux, at the head of the Liegeois and the contingents from 
the other Walloon towns, with the support of the lowest elements 
of the Brussels population, demanded the dissolution of the 
Committee of Public Safety and the establishment of a Provisional 
Government. The members of the Committee and of the Munici- 
pality, sitting in permanence at the Hotel de Ville, did their utmost 
to maintain order with the strong support of Baron D'Hoogvoort 
and the Civic Guard. But it was in vain. On the evening of Sep- 
tember 20 an immense mob rushed the Hotel de Ville, after 
disarming the Civic Guard; and Rogier and Ducpetiaux were 
henceforth masters of the city. The Committee of Public Safety 
disappeared and is heard of no more. Hoogvoort resigned his 
command. On receipt of this news Prince Frederick at Vilvoorde 
was ordered to advance upon the city and compel submission. But 
the passions of the crowd had been aroused, and the mere rumour 
that the Dutch troops were moving caused the most vigorous 
steps to be taken to resist a outrance their penetrating into the 
town. 

The royal forces, on the morning of September 23, entered the 
city at three gates and advanced as far as the Park. But beyond that 
point they were unable to proceed, so desperate was the resistance, 
and such the hail of bullets that met them from barricades and from 
the windows and roofs of the houses. For three days almost without 
cessation the fierce contest went on, the troops losing ground rather 



THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 395 

than gaining it. On the evening of the 26th the prince gave orders 
to retreat, his troops having suffered severely. 

The effect of this withdrawal was to convert a street insurrection 
into a national revolt. The moderates now united with the liberals, 
and a Provisional Government was formed, having amongst its 
members Rogier, Van de Weyer, Gendebien, Emmanuel D'Hoog- 
voort, Felix de Merode and Louis de Potter, who a few days later 
returned triumphantly from banishment. The Provisional Govern- 
ment issued a series of decrees declaring Belgium independent, 
releasing the Belgian soldiers from their allegiance, and calling upon 
them to abandon the Dutch standard. They were obeyed. The 
revolt, which had been confined mainly to the Walloon districts, 
now spread rapidly over Flanders. Garrison after garrison sur- 
rendered ; and the remnants of the disorganised Dutch forces retired 
upon Antwerp (October 2). Two days later the Provisional 
Government summoned a National Congress to be elected by all 
Belgian citizens of 25 years of age. The news of these events caused 
great perturbation at the Hague. The Prince of Orange, who had 
throughout advocated conciliation, was now permitted by his father 
to go to Antwerp (October 4) and endeavour to place himself at the 
head of the Belgian movement on the basis of a grant of administra- 
tive separation, but without severance of the dynastic bond with 
Holland. 

King William meanwhile had already (October 2) appealed to 
the Great Powers, signatories of the Articles of London in 18 14, to 
intervene and to restore order in the Belgic provinces. The 
difficulties of the prince at Antwerp were very great, for he was 
hampered throughout by his father's unwillingness to grant him 
full liberty of action. He issued a proclamation, but it was coldly 
received ; and his attempts to negotiate with the Provisional Govern- 
ment at Brussels met with no success. Things had now gone too 
far, and any proposal to make Belgium connected with Holland by 
any ties, dynastic or otherwise, was unacceptable. The well-meaning 
prince returned disappointed to the Hague on October 24. A most 
unfortunate occurrence now took place. As General Chasse, the 
Dutch commander at Antwerp, was withdrawing his troops from 
the town to the citadel, attacks were made upon them by the mob, 
and some lives were lost. Chasse in reprisal (October 27) ordered 
the town to be bombarded from the citadel and the gunboats upon 



396 THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 

the river. This impolitic act increased throughout Belgium the 
feeling of hatred against the Dutch, and made the demand for 
absolute independence deeper and stronger. 

The appeal of William to the signatory Powers had immediate 
effect; and representatives of Austria, Prussia, Russia and Great 
Britain, to whom a representative of France was now added, met at 
London on November 4. This course of action was far from what the 
king expected or wished. Their first step was to impose an armistice ; 
their next to make it clear that their intervention would be confined 
to negotiating a settlement on the basis of separation. A Whig 
ministry in England had (November 16) taken the place of that of 
WeUington; and Lord Palmerston, the new Foreign Secretary, was 
well-disposed to Belgium and found himself able to work in accord 
with Talleyrand, the French plenipotentiary. Austria and Russia 
were too much occupied with their own internal difficulties to think 
of supporting the Dutch king by force of arms ; and Prussia, despite 
the close family connection, did not venture to oppose the deter- 
mination of the two western Powers to work for a peaceful settle- 
ment. While they were deliberating, the National Congress had met 
at Brussels, and important decisions had been taken. By over- 
whelming majorities (November 18) Belgium was declared to be 
an independent State; and four days later, after vigorous debates, 
the Congress (by 174 votes to 13) resolved that the new State 
should be a constitutional monarchy and (by 161 votes to 28) that 
the house of Orange-Nassau be for ever excluded from the throne. 
A committee was appointed to draw up a constitution. 

William had appealed to the Powers to maintain the Treaties 
of Paris and Vienna and to support him in what he regarded, on 
the basis of those treaties, as his undoubted rights ; and it was with 
indignation that he saw the Conference decline to admit his envoy, 
Falck, except as a witness and on precisely the same terms as the 
representatives of the Brussels Congress. On December 20 a 
protocol was issued by the Powers which defined their attitude. 
They accepted the principle of separation and independence, 
subject to arrangements being made for assuring European peace. 
The Conference, however, declared that such arrangements would 
not affect the rights of King William and of the German Confedera- 
tion in the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. This part of the protocol 
was as objectionable to the Belgians as the former part was to the 



THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 397 

Dutch king. The London Plenipotentiaries had in fact no choice, 
for they were bound by the unfortunate clauses of the treaties of 
1 81 5, which, to gratify Prussian ambition for cis-Rhenan territory, 
converted this ancient Belgian province into a German state. This 
ill-advised step was now to be the chief obstacle to a settlement in 
1 83 1. The mere fact that William had throughout the period of 
union always treated Luxemburg as an integral part of the southern 
portion of his kingdom made its threatened severance from the 
Belgic provinces a burning question. For Luxemburgers had 
taken a considerable part in the revolt, and Luxemburg repre- 
sentatives sat in the National Congress. Of these eleven voted for 
the perpetual exclusion of the Orange-Nassau dynasty, one only 
in its favour. It is not surprising, therefore, that a strong protest was 
made against the decision of the London Conference to treat the 
status of Luxemburg as outside the subject of their deliberations. 
The Conference, however, unmoved by this protest, proceeded 
in a protocol of January 20, 183 1 , to define the conditions of separa- 
tion. Holland w^as to retain her old boundaries of the year 1790, 
and Belgium to have the remainder of the territory assigned to 
the kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815. Luxemburg was again 
excluded. The Five Powers, moreover, declared that within these 
limits the new Belgian State was to be perpetually neutral, its 
integrity and inviolabiUty being guaranteed by all and each of the 
Powers. A second protocol (January 27) fixed the proportion of the 
national debt to be borne by Belgium at sixteen parts out of 
thirty-one. The sovereign of Belgium was required to give his 
assent to these protocols, as a condition to being recognised by the 
Powers. But the Congress of Brussels was in no submissive mood. 
They had already (January 19) resolved to proceed to the election 
of a king without consulting anyone. The territorial boundaries 
assigned to Belgium met \^dth almost unanimous reprobation, a 
claim being made to the incorporation not merely of Luxemburg, 
but also of Maestricht, Limburg and Dutch Flanders, in the new 
State. Nor were they more contented with the proportion of the 
debt Belgium was asked to bear. On February i the Five Powers 
had agreed that they would not assent to a member of any of the 
reigning dynasties being elected to the throne of Belgium. Never- 
theless (February 3) the Due de Nemours, son of Louis Philippe, 
was elected by 94 votes, as against 67 recorded for the Duke of 



398 THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 

Leuchtenberg, son of Eugene Beauharnais. The Conference took 
immediate action by refusing to permit either Nemours or Leuch- 
tenberg to accept the proffered crown. 

These acute differences between the Conference and the Belgian 
Congress were a cause of much satisfaction to the Dutch king, who 
was closely watching the course of events ; and he thought it good 
policy (February 1 8) to signify his assent to the conditions set forth 
in the protocols of January 20 and 27. He had still some hopes of 
the candidature of the Prince of Orange (who was in London) 
being supported by the Powers, but for this the time was past. 

At this juncture the name of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who had 
resided in England since the death of his wife the Princess Charlotte, 
was put forward. This candidature was supported by Great Britain; 
France raised no objection; and in Belgium it met with official 
support. Early in April a deputation of five commissioners was sent 
to offer the crown provisionally to the prince, subject to his 
endeavouring to obtain some modification of the protocols of 
January 20 and 27. The Five Powers, however, in a protocol, 
dated April 15, announced to the Belgian Government that the 
conditions of separation as laid down in the January protocols were 
final and irrevocable, and, if not accepted, relations would be broken 
off. Leopold was not discouraged, however; and such was his 
influence that he did succeed in obtaining from the Conference 
an undertaking that they would enter into negotiations with King 
William in regard both to the territorial and financial disputes with 
a view to a settlement, moyennant dejustes compensations. 

The Saxe-Coburg prince was elected king by the Congress (June 4) ; 
and in redemption of their undertaking the Conference promulgated 
(June 26) the preliminary treaty, generally known as the Treaty of 
the XVIII Articles. By this treaty the question of Luxemburg was 
reserved for a separate negotiation, the status quo being meanwhile 
maintained. Other boundary disputes (Maestricht, Limburg and 
various enclaves) were to be amicably arranged, and the share of 
Belgium in the public debt was reduced. Leopold had made his 
acceptance of the crown depend upon the assent of the Congress 
being given to the Treaty. This assent was given, but in the face 
of strong opposition (July 9) ; and the new king made his public 
entry into Brussels and took the oath to the Constitution twelve 
days later. On the same day (July 21) the Dutch king refused to 



THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 399 

accept the XVIII Articles, declaring that he adhered to the protocols 
of January 20 and 27, which the plenipotentiaries had themselves 
declared (April 15) to be fundamental and irrevocable. Nor did he 
confine himself to a refusal. He declared that if any prince should 
accept the sovereignty of Belgium or take possession of it without 
ha\-ing assented to the protocols as the basis of separation he could 
only regard such prince as his enemy. He followed this up (August 2) 
by a despatch addressed to the Foreign Ministers of the Five Powers, 
announcing his intention " to throw his army into the balance wdth 
a view to obtaining more equitable terms of separation." 

These were no empty words. The facile success of the Belgian 
revolution had led to the Dutch army being branded as a set of 
cowards. The king, therefore, despite a solemn warning from the 
Conference, was determined to show the world that Holland was 
perfectly able to assert her rights by armed force if she chose to do 
s ff. In this course he had the whole-hearted support of his people. 
It was a bold act politically justified by events. Unexpectedly, on 
August 2, the Prince of Orange at the head of an army of 30,000 
picked men with 72 guns crossed the frontier. The Belgians were 
quite taken by surprise. Their army, though not perhaps inferior 
in numbers to the invaders, was badly organised, and was divided 
into tvvo parts — the army of the Scheldt and the army of the ^vleuse. 
The prince knew that he must act with promptness and decision, 
and he thrust his army by rapid movements betvveen the two Belgian 
corps. That of the Meuse fell back in great disorder upon Liege; 
that of the Scheldt was also forced to beat a rapid retreat. Leopold, 
whose reign was not yet a fortnight old, joined the western corps 
and did all that man could do to organise and stiffen resistance. At 
Louvain (August 12) he made a last effort to save the capital and 
repeatedly exposed his Hfe, but the Belgians were completely 
routed and Brussels lay at the victor's mercy. It was a terrible 
humiliation for the new Belgian state. But the prince had accom- 
plished his task and did not advance beyond Louvain. On hearing 
that a French army, at the invitation of King Leopold, had entered 
Belgium with the sanction of the Powers, he concluded an armistice, 
by the mediation of the British ^Minister, Sir Robert Adair, and 
undertook to evacuate Belgian territory. His army recrossed the 
Dutch frontier (August 20), and the French thereupon withdrew. 

The Ten Days' Campaign had effected its purpose ; and, when the 



400 THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 

Conference met to consider the new situation, it was felt that the 
XVIII Articles must be revised. Belgium, saved only from conquest 
by French intervention, had to pay the penalty of defeat. A new 
treaty in XXIV Articles was drawn up, and was (October 14) again 
declared to be final and irrevocable. By this treaty the north- 
western (Walloon) portion of Luxemburg was assigned to Belgium > 
but at the cost of ceding to Holland a considerable piece of Belgian 
Limburg giving the Dutch the command of both banks of the 
river Meuse from Maestricht to the Gelderland frontier. The 
proportion of the debt was likewise altered in favour of Holland. 
King William was informed that he must obtain the assent of the 
Germanic Confederation and of the Nassau agnates to the territorial 
adjustments. 

These conditions created profound dissatisfaction both in 
Belgium and Holland. It was again the unhappy Luxemburg 
question which caused so much heart-burning. The Conference 
however felt itself bound by the territorial arrangements of the 
Congress of Vienna; and Palmerston and Talleyrand, acting in 
concert throughout, could not on this matter overrule the opposition 
of Prussia and Austria supported by Russia. All they could do was 
to secure the compromise by which Walloon Luxemburg was given 
to Belgium in exchange for territorial compensation in Limburg. 
Belgian feeling was strong against surrendering any part either of 
Luxemburg or Limburg; but King Leopold saw that surrender 
was inevitable and by a threat of abdication he managed to secure, 
though against vehement opposition, the acceptance of the Treaty 
of the XXIV Articles by the Belgian Chambers (November i). The 
treaty was signed at London by the plenipotentiaries of the Five 
Great Powers and by the Belgian envoy. Van de Weyer, on 
November 15, 1831; and Belgium was solemnly recognised as an 
independent State, whose perpetual neutrality and inviolability 
was guaranteed by each of the signatories severally^. 

Once more the obstinacy of King William proved an insuperable 
obstacle to a settlement. He had expected better results from the 
Ten Days' Campaign, and he emphatically denied the right of the 
Conference to interfere with the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, as 
this was not a Belgian question, but concerned only the House of 

^ The ratification by the Powers took place on the following dates : — France 
and Great Britain, January 3 1 ; Austria and Prussia, April 18 ; Russia, May 4, 1832. 



THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 401 

Nassau and the Germanic Confederation. He also objected to the 
proposed regulations regarding the navigation of the river Scheldt, 
and refused to evacuate Antwerp or other places occupied by Dutch 
troops. He was aware that Great Britain and France had taken the 
leading part in drawing up the treaty, but he relied for support 
upon his close family relations with Prussia and Russia^, v^dth whom 
Austria acted. But, although these Powers bore him good will, they 
had no intention of encouraging his resistance. Their object in 
delaying their ratification of the treat\^ was to afford time to bring 
good ad\dce to bear upon the unbending temper of the Dutch king. 
The Tsar even sent Count Alexis Orloff on a special mission to the 
Hague, with instructions to act with the Prussian and Austrian 
envoys in urging William to take a reasonable course. All their 
efforts ended in failure. 

During the first nine months of the year 1 832 a vigorous exchange 
of notes took place between London and the Hague ; and the Con- 
ference did its utmost to effect an accommodation. At last patience 
was exhausted, and the Powers had to threaten coercion. The three 
eastern Powers declined indeed to take any active share in coercive 
measures, but were willing that Great Britain and France should 
be their delegates. Palmerston and Talleyrand, however, were 
determined that the King of Holland should no longer continue 
to dtfy the will of the European Great Powers ; and on October 22 
the English and French governments concluded a Convention for 
joint action. Notice was given to King William (November 2) that 
he must ^\-ithdraw his troops before November 13 from all places 
assigned to Belgium by the Treat}- of the XXIV Articles. If he 
refused, the Dutch ports would be blockaded and an embargo placed 
upon Dutch ships in the allies' harbours. Further, if on November 13 
any Dutch garrisons remained on Belgian soil, they would be expelled 
by armed force. William at once (November 2) replied to the notice 
by a fiat refusal. In so acting he had behind him the practically 
unanimous support of Dutch public opinion. The aUies took prompt 
measures. An Anglo-French squadron set sail (November 7) to 
blockade the Dutch ports and the mouth of the Scheldt; and in 
response to an appeal from the Belgian government (as was required 
by the terms of the Convention) a French army of 60,000 men under 

^ The Prince of Orange had married Anna Paulo vna, sister of Alexander I, in 
1816. 

E. H. H. 26 



402 THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 

Marshal Gerard crossed the Belgian frontier (November 15) and 
laid siege to the Antwerp citadel, held by a garrison of 5000 men 
commanded by General Chasse. The siege began on November 20, 
and it was not until December 22 that Chasse, after a most gallant 
defence, was compelled to capitulate. Rear- Admiral Koopman 
preferred to burn his twelve gunboats rather than surrender them 
to the enemy. Marshal Gerard offered to release his prisoners if 
the Dutch would evacuate the forts of Lillo and Liefkenshoeck, 
lower down the river. His offer was refused ; and the French army, 
having achieved its purpose, withdrew. For some time longer the 
blockade and embargo continued, to the great injury of Dutch trade. 
An interchange of notes between the Hague and London led to the 
drawing up of a convention, known as the Convention of London, 
on May 21, 1833. By this agreement King William undertook to 
commit no acts of hostility against Belgium until a definitive treaty 
of peace was signed, and to open the navigation of the Scheldt and 
the Meuse for commerce. The Convention was in fact a recognition 
of the stattis quo and was highly advantageous to Belgium, as both 
Luxemburg and Limburg were ad interim treated as if they were 
integral parts of the new kingdom. 

The cessation of hostilities, however, led to a fresh attempt to 
reach a settlement. In response to an invitation sent by the western 
Powers to Austria, Prussia and Russia, the Conference again met 
in London on July 1 5 . The thread of the negotiations was taken up ; 
but the Belgian government insisted, with the full support of 
Palmerston, that as a preliminary to any further discussion the King 
of Holland must obtain the assent of the German Confederation 
and of the Nassau agnates to the proposed territorial rearrange- 
ments. William declined to ask for this assent. The Conference on 
this was indefinitely suspended. That the king's refusal in August 
was a part of his fixed policy of waiting upon events was shown by 
his actually approaching the Confederation and the agnates in the 
following November (1833). Neither of these would consent to any 
partition of Luxemburg, unless they received full territorial com- 
pensation elsewhere. So matters drifted on through the years 1834- 
1837. Meanwhile in Holland a change of opinion had been gradually 
taking place. The heavy taxes consequent upon the maintenance 
of an army on a war footing pressed more and more upon a country 
whose income was insufficient to meet its expenses. People grew 



THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 403 

tired of waiting for a change in the political position that became 
every year more remote. Luxemburg was of Httle interest to the 
Dutch; they only saw that Belgium was prosperous, and that the 
maintenance of the status quo was apparently all to her advantage. 
The dissatisfaction of the Dutch people, so long patient and loyal, 
made itself heard with increasing insistence in the States-General ; 
and the king saw that the time had arrived for abandoning his 
obstinate non-possumus attitude. Accordingly, in March, 1838, he 
suddenly instructed his minister in London (Dedel) to inform 
Palmerston that he (the king) was ready to sign the treaty of the 
XXIV Articles, and to agree pleinement et entierement to the con- 
ditions it imposed. 

The unexpected news of this sudden step came upon the Belgians 
like a thunderclap. From every part of the kingdom arose a storm 
of protest against any surrender of territory. The people of 
Luxemburg and Limburg appealed to their fellow-citizens not to 
abandon them; and their appeal met with the strongest support 
from all classes and in both Chambers. They argued that Holland 
had refused to sign the treaty of 1831, which had been imposed 
on Belgium in her hour of defeat; and that now, after seven years, 
the treaty had ceased to be in force and required revision. The 
Belgians expected to receive support from Great Britain and France, 
and more especially from Palmerston, their consistent friend. But 
Palmerston was tired of the endless wrangling; and, acting on his 
initiative, the Five Powers determined that they would insist on the 
Treaty of the XXIV Articles being carried out as it stood. The 
Conference met again in October, 1838; and all the efforts of the 
Belgian government, and of King Leopold personally, to obtain more 
favoured terms proved unavailing. An offer to pay sixty million 
francs indemnity for Luxemburg and Limburg was rejected both 
by King William and the Germanic Confederation. Such was the 
passionate feeling in Belgium that there was actually much talk of 
resisting in the last resort by force of arms. Volunteers poured in; 
and in Holland also the government began to make military 
preparations. But it was an act of sheer madness for isolated Belgium 
to think of opposing the will of the Great Powers of Europe. The 
angry interchange of diplomatic notes resulted only in one modifi- 
cation in favour of Belgium. The annual charge of 8,400,000 francs 
placed upon Belgium on account of her share in the public debt 

26 2 



404 THE BELGIAN REVOLUTION 

of the Netherlands was reduced to a payment of 5,000,000 francs. 
The Dutch king signed the treaty on February i , 1839. Finally the 
proposal that the treaty should be signed, opposition being useless, 
met with a sullen assent from the two Belgian Chambers. On April 
19, 1839, the Belgian envoy, Van de Weyer, affixed his signature at 
the Foreign Office in London and so brought to an end the long 
controversy, which had lasted for nine years. There were still many 
details to be settled between the two kingdoms, which from this 
time became two separate and distinct political entities ; but these 
were finally arranged in an amicable spirit, and were embodied in 
a subsidiary treaty signed November 5, 1842. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

WILLIAM 11. REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

I 842-1 849 

The Dutch nation welcomed the final separation from Belgium 
with profound relief. The national charges had risen from 1 5 million 
florins in 181 5 to 38 million florins in 1838. Taxation was op- 
pressive, trade stagnant, and the financial position growing more 
and more intolerable. The long- tried loyalty of the people, who 
had entrusted their sovereign with such wide and autocratic powers, 
had cooled. The king's Belgian policy had obviously been a 
complete failure ; and the rotten state of public finance was naturally 
in large part attributed to the sovereign, who had so long been 
practically his own finance minister. Loud cries began to be raised 
for a revision of the constitution on liberal lines. To the old king 
any such revision was repugnant ; but, unable to resist the trend of 
public opinion, he gave his assent to a measure of constitutional 
reform in the spring of 1840. Its limited concessions satisfied 
no one. Its principal modifications of the Fundamental Law were : 
(i) the division of the province of Holland into two parts; (2) the 
reduction of the Civil List; (3) the necessary alteration of the 
number of deputies in the Second Chamber due to the separation 
from Belgium ; (4) abolition of the distinction between the ordinary 
and the extraordinary budget; (5) a statement of the receipts 
and expenditure of the colonies to be laid before the States- 
General. Finally the principle of ministerial responsibility was 
granted most reluctantly, the king yielding only after the Chambers 
had declined to consider the estimates without this concession. But 
William had already made up his mind to abdicate, rather than reign 
under the new conditions. He knew that he was unpopular and 
out-of-touch with the times; and his unpopularity had been 
increased by his announced intention of marrying the Countess 
Henriette D'Oultremont, a Belgian and a Catholic. On October 7 
he issued a proclamation by which he handed over the govern- 
ment to his son William Frederick, Prince of Orange. He then 



4o6 WILLIAM II 

retired quietly to his private estates in Silesia. He died at Berlin in 

1843; . 
William II was forty-eight years of age on his accession to the 

throne. He was a man of a character very different from that of his 

father. Amiable, accessible, easily influenced, liberal-handed even 

to extravagance, he was deservedly popular. He had shown himself 

in the Peninsula, at Quatre Bras and Waterloo and later in the Ten 

Days' Campaign, to be a capable and courageous soldier, but he 

possessed few of the qualities either of a statesman or a financier. 

He had married in 1816 Anna Paulovna, sister of the Tsar 

Alexander I, after his proposed marriage with the Princess Charlotte 

of England had been broken off. 

He entered upon his reign in difficult times. There was a loud 

demand for a further sweeping revision of the constitution. 

Religious movements, which had been gathering force during the 

reign of William I, required careful handling. One minister after 

another had tried to grapple with the financial problem, but in vain. 

In 1840 the public debt amounted to 2200 million florins; and the 

burden of taxation, though it had become almost unendurable, 

failed to provide for the interest on the debt and the necessary 

expenses of administration. The State was in fact on the verge 

of bankruptcy. The appointment in 1842 of F. A. van Hall 

(formerly an Amsterdam advocate, who had held the post of 

minister of justice) to be finance minister opened out a means of 

salvation. The arrears to 1840 amounted to 35 million florins; the 

deficit for 1841-3 had to be covered, and means provided for the 

expenditure for 1843-4. Van Hall's proposals gave the people the 

choice between providing the necessary money by an extraordinary 

tax of one and a half per cent, on property and income, and raising 

a voluntary loan of 150 million florins at 3 per cent. After long 

debates the States- General accepted the proposal for the voluntary 

loan, but the amount was reduced to 126 millions. The success of 

the loan, though at first doubtful, was by March, 1844, complete. 

The Amsterdam Bourse gave its utmost support; and the royal 

family set a good example by a joint subscription of 11 million 

florins. By this means, and by the capitalisation of the annual 

Belgian payment of five million francs. Van Hall was able to clear off 

the four years' arrears and to convert the 5 and 4 J per cent, scrip 

into 4 per cent. He was helped by the large annual payments, which 



REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION, 1 842-1 849 407 

now began to come in from the Dutch East Indies ; and at length 
an equilibrium was established in the budget between receipts and 
expenditure. 

In the years preceding the French Revolution the Reformed 
Church in the United Pro\'inces had become honey-combed with 
rationalism. The official orthodox}' of the Dort synod had become 
*'a fossilised skeleton." By the Constitution of 179S Church and 
State were separated, and the propert}- of the Church was taken by 
the State, which paid however stipends to the ministers. Under 
King Louis subsidies were paid from the pubUc funds to teachers 
of ever}' religious persuasion ; and this system continued during the 
union of Holland and Belgium. A movement known as the Revetl 
had meanwhile been stirring the dr}--bones of Cahinistic orthodoxy 
in Holland. Its first leaders were Bilderdijk, De Costa and Capadose. 
Like most religious revi\^ls, this movement gave rise to extravagancies 
and dissensions. In 18 16 a new sect was founded by a sea-captain, 
Staffel Mulder, on communistic principles after the example of the 
first Jerusalem converts, which gathered a number of followers 
among the peasantr}'. The*' New Lighters" — such was the name they 
assumed — estabhshed in 1823 their headquarters at Zwijndrecht. 
The first enthusiasm however died do%^*n, and the sect gradually 
disappeared. More serious was the liberal revolt against the cut- 
and-dried orthodox}^ of Dort. Slowly it made headway, and it found 
leaders in Hofstede de Groot, professor at Groningen, and in two 
eloquent preachers, De Cocq at Ulrum and Scholte at Deventer. 
These men, finding that their \'iews met \^'ith no sympathy or recog- 
nition by the synodal authorities, resolved (October 14, 1834) on the 
serious step of separating from the Reformed Church and forming 
themselves and their adherents into a new church body. They were 
kno\^'n as *'the Separatists" {de Afgescheidenen), Though deprived 
of their pulpits, fined and persecuted, the Separatists grew in 
number. In 1836 the government refused to recognise them as a 
Church, but permitted local congregations to hold meetings in 
houses. In 1838 more favourable conditions were offered, which 
De Cocq and Scholte finally agreed to accept, but no subsidies were 
paid to the sect by the State. William II, in 1842, made a further 
concession by allowing rehgious teaching to be given daily in the 
public schools (out of school hours) by the Separatist ministers, 
as well as by those of other denominations. All this while, however, 



4o8 WILLIAM II 

certain congregations refused to accept the compromise of 1838; 
and a large number, headed by a preacher named Van Raalte, in 
order to obtain freedom of worship, emigrated to Michigan to form 
the nucleus of a flourishing Dutch colony. 

The accession of William II coincided with a period of political 
unrest, not only in Holland but throughout Europe. A strong 
reaction had set in against the system of autocratic rule, which 
had been the marked feature of the period which followed 181 5. 
Liberal and progressive ideas had during the later years been 
making headway in Holland under the inspiring leadership of Johan 
Rudolf Thorbecke, at that time a professor of jurisprudence at 
Ley den. He had many followers ; and the cause he championed had 
the support of the brilliant writers and publicists, Donker-Curtius, 
Luzac, Potgieter, Bakhuizen van der Brink and others. A strong 
demand arose for a thorough revision of the constitution. In 1844 ^ 
body of nine members of the Second Chamber, chief amongst them 
Thorbecke, drew up a definite proposal for a revision; but the king 
expressed his dislike to it, and it was rejected. The Van Hall 
ministry had meanwhile been carrying out those excellent financial 
measures which had saved the credit of the State, and was now 
endeavouring to conduct the government on opportunist lines. But 
the potato famine in 1845-46 caused great distress among the 
labouring classes, and gave added force to the spirit of discontent in 
the country. The king himself grew nervous in the presence of the 
revolutionary ferment spreading throughout Europe, and was more 
especially alarmed (February, 1848) by the sudden overthrow of 
the monarchy of Louis Philippe and the proclamation of a republic 
at Paris. He now resolved himself to take the initiative. He saw that 
the proposals hitherto made for revision did not satisfy public 
opinion ; and on March 8 , without consulting his ministers , he took th e 
unusual step of sending for the President of the Second Chamber, 
Boreel van Hogelanden. He asked him to ascertain the opinions 
and wishes of the Chamber on the matter of revision and to report 
to him. The ministry on this resigned and a new liberal ministry 
was formed, at the head of which was Count Schimmelpenninck, 
formerly minister in London. On March 17 a special Commission 
was appointed to draw up a draft scheme of revision. It consisted 
of five members, four of vv^hom, Thorbecke, Luzac, Donker-Curtius 
and Kempenaer, were prominent liberals and the fifth a Catholic 



REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION, 1842-1849 409 

from North Brabant. Their work was completed by April 1 1 and 
the report presented to the king. Schimmelpenninck, not agreeing 
with the proposals of the Commission, resigned ; and on May 11 a 
new ministry under the leadership of Donker-Curtius was formed 
for the express purpose of carrying out the proposed revision. A 
periodical election of the Second Chamber took place in July, and 
difficulties at first confronted the new scheme. These were, how- 
ever, overcome ; and on October 14 the revised constitution received 
the king's assent. It was solemnly proclaimed on November 3. 

The Constitution of 1848 left in the hands of the king the exe- 
cutive power,/.e.the conduct of foreign affairs, the right of declaring 
war and making peace, the supreme command of the military and 
naval forces, the administration of the overseas possessions, and the 
right of dissolving the Chambers; but these prerogatives were 
modified by the introduction of the principle of ministerial re- 
sponsibility. The ministers were responsible for all acts of the 
government, and the king could legally do no wrong. The king was 
president of the Council of State (15 members), whose duty it was 
to consider all proposals made to or by the States- General. The 
king shared the legislative power with the States- General, but the 
Second Chamber had the right of initiative, amendment and 
investigation ; and annual budgets were henceforth to be presented 
for its approval. All members of the States- General were to be at 
least 30 years of age. The First Chamber of 39 members was elected 
by the Provincial Estates from those most highly assessed to direct 
taxation ; the members sat for nine years, but one-third vacated their 
seats every third year. All citizens of full age paying a certain sum 
to direct taxation had the right of voting for members of the 
Second Chamber, the country for this purpose being divided into 
districts containing 45,000 inhabitants. The members held their 
seats for four years, but half the Chamber retired every second year. 
Freedom of worship to all denominations, liberty of the press and 
the right of public meeting were guaranteed. Primary education in 
public schools was placed under State control, but private schools 
were not interfered with. The provincial and communal adminis- 
tration was likewise reformed and made dependent on the direct 
popular vote. 

The ministry of Donker-Curtius at once took steps for holding 
fresh elections, as soon as the new constitution became the 



410 WILLIAM II 

fundamental law of the country. A large majority of liberals was 
returned to the Second Chamber. The king in person opened the 
States- General on February 13, 1849, and expressed his intention of 
accepting loyally the changes to which he had given his assent. He 
was, however, suffering and weak from illness, and a month later 
(March 17) he died at Tilburg. His gracious and kindly personality 
had endeared him to his subjects, who deeply regretted that at this 
moment of constitutional change the States should lose his ex- 
perienced guidance. He was succeeded by his son, William III. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

REIGN OF WILLIAM III TO THE DEATH OF 
THORBECKE, 1849-1872 

William III succeeded to the throne at a moment of transition. 
He was thirty- two years of age, and his natural leanings were 
autocratic; but he accepted loyally the principle of ministerial 
responsibility, and throughout his long reign endeavoured honestly 
and impartially to fulfil his duties as a constitutional sovereign. 
There were at this time in Holland four political parties: (i) the 
old conservative party, which after 1849 gradually dwindled in 
numbers and soon ceased to be a power in the State ; (2) the liberals, 
under the leadership of Thorbecke; (3) the anti-revolutionary or 
orthodox Protestant party, ably led by G. Groen van Prinsterer, 
better known perhaps as a distinguished historian, but at the same 
time a good debater and resourceful parHamentarian ; (4) the 
Catholic p3.Tty. The Catholics for the first time obtained in 1849 
the full privileges of citizenship. They owed this to the liberals, 
and for some years they gave their support to that party, though 
differing from them fundamentally on many points. The anti- 
revolutionaries placed in the foreground the upholding of the 
Reformed (orthodox Calvinistic) faith in the State, and of religious 
teaching in the schools. In this last article of their political creed 
they were at one with the Catholics, and in its defence the two 
parties were destined to become alHes. 

The liberal majority in the newly elected States- General was 
considerable ; and it was the general expectation that Thorbecke 
would become head of the government. The king however sus- 
pected the aims of the liberal leader, and personally disliked him. 
He therefore kept in office the Donker-Curtius-De Kempenaer 
cabinet; but, after a vain struggle against the hostile majority, it 
was compelled to resign, and Thorbecke was called upon to form 
a ministry. 

Thorbecke was thus the first constitutional prime-minister of 
Holland. His answer to his opponents, who asked for his programme. 



412 REIGN OF WILLIAM III 

was contained in words which he was speedily to justify : '* Wait for 
our deeds." A law was passed which added 55,000 votes to the 
electorate; and by two other laws the provincial and communal 
assemblies were placed upon a popular representative basis. The 
system of finance was reformed by the gradual substitution of 
direct for indirect taxation. By the Navigation Laws all differential 
and transit dues upon shipping were reduced; tolls on through- 
cargoes on the rivers were abolished, and the tariff on raw materials 
lowered. It was a considerable step forward in the direction of free- 
trade. Various changes were made to lighten the incidence of 
taxation on the poorer classes. Among the public works carried 
to completion at this time (1852) was the empoldering of the 
Haarlem lake, which converted a large expanse of water into good 
pasture land. 

It was not on political grounds that the Thorbecke ministry 
was to be wrecked, but by their action in matters which aroused 
religious passions and prejudices. The prime-minister wished to 
bring all charitable institutions and agencies under State super- 
vision. Their number was more than 3500; and a large proportion 
of these were connected with and supported by religious bodies. 
It is needless to say the proposal aroused strong opposition. More 
serious was the introduction of a Catholic episcopate into Holland. 
By the Fundamental Law of 1848 complete freedom of worship 
and of organisation had been guaranteed to every form of religious 
belief. It was the wish of the Catholics that the system which had 
endured ever since the i6th century of a "Dutch mission" under 
the direction of an Italian prelate (generally the internuncio) should 
come to an end, and that they should have bishops of their own. The 
proposal was quite constitutional and, far from giving the papal 
curia more power in the Netherlands, it decreased it. A petition 
to Pius IX in 1847 met with little favour at Rome; but in 1851 
another petition, much more widely signed, urged the Pope to seize 
the favourable opportunity for establishing a native hierarchy. 
Negotiations were accordingly opened by the papal see with the 
Dutch government, which ended (October, 1852) in a recognition 
of the right of the Catholic Church in Holland to have freedom of 
organisation. It was stipulated, however, that a previous communi- 
cation should be made to the government of the papal intentions 
and plans, before they were carried out. The only communication 



TO THE DEATH OF THORBECKE, 1849-1872 413 

that was made was not official, but confidential ; and it merely stated 
that Utrecht was to be erected into an archbishopric with Haarlem, 
Breda, Hertogenbosch and Roeremonde,as suffragans. The ministry 
regarded the choice of such Protestant centres as Utrecht and 
Haarlem with resentment, but were faced with the fait accompli. 
This strong-handed action of the Roman authorities was made still 
more offensive by the issuing of a papal allocution, again without 
any consultation with the Dutch government, in which Pius IX 
described the establishment of the new hierarchy as a means of 
counteracting in the Netherlands the heresy of Calvin. 

A wave of fierce indignation swept over Protestant Holland, 
which united in one camp orthodox Calvinists (anti-revolu- 
tionaries), conservatives and anti-papal liberals. The preachers 
everywhere inveighed against a ministry which had permitted such 
an act of aggression on the part of a foreign potentate against the 
Protestantism of the nation. Utrecht took the lead in drawing up 
an address to the king and to the States- General (which obtained 
two hundred thousand signatures), asking them not to recognise the 
proposed hierarchy. At the meeting of the Second Chamber of the 
States-General on April 12, Thorbecke had little difficulty in 
convincing the majority that the Pope had proceeded without 
consultation with the ministry, and that imder the Constitution 
the Catholics had acted within their rights in re-modelling their 
Church organisation. But his arguments were far from satisfying 
outside public opinion. On the occasion of a visit of the king to 
Amsterdam the ministry took the step of advising him not to receive 
any address hostile to the establishment of the hierarchy, on the 
ground that this did not require the royal approval. William, who 
had never been friendly to Thorbecke, was annoyed at being thus 
instructed in the discharge of his duties ; and he not only received 
an address containing 51,000 signatures but expressed his great 
pleasure in being thus approached (April 15). At the same time 
he summoned Van Hall, the leader of the opposition, to Amsterdam 
for a private consultation. The ministry, on hearing of what had 
taken place, sent in its resignation, which was accepted on April 19. 
Thus fell the Thorbecke ministry, not by a parliamentary defeat, 
but because the king associated himself with the uprising of hostile 
public opinion, known as the "April Movement." 

A new ministry was formed under the joint leadership of Van 



414 REIGN OF WILLIAM III 

Hall and Donker-Curtius ; and an appeal to the electors resulted 
in the defeat of the liberals. The majority was a coalition of 
conservatives and anti-revolutionaries. The followers of Groen 
van Prinsterer were small in number, but of importance through 
the strong religious convictions and debating ability of the leader. 
The presence of Donker-Curtius was a guarantee for moderation; 
and, as Van Hall was an adept in political opportunism, the new 
ministry differed from its liberal predecessor chiefly in its more 
cautious attitude towards the reforms which both were ready to 
adopt. As it had been carried into office by the April Movement, a 
Church Association Bill was passed into law making it illegal for*^ 
a foreigner to hold any Church office without the royal assent, and 
forbidding the wearing of a distinctive religious dress outside closed 
buildings. Various measures were introduced dealing with ministerial 
responsibility, poor-law administration and other matters, such as 
the abolition of the excise on meat and of barbarous punishments 
on the scaffold. 

The question of primary education was to prove for the 
next half-century a source of continuous political and religious 
strife, dividing the people of Holland into hostile camps. The 
question was whether the State schools should be "mixed" i.e. 
neutral schools, where only those simple truths which were common 
to all denominations should be taught; or should be "separate" 
i.e. denominational schools, in which religious instruction should 
be given in accordance with the wishes of the parents. A bill was 
brought in by the government (September, 1854) which was 
intended to be a compromise. It affirmed the general principle that 
the State schools should be "neutral," but allowed "separate" 
schools to be built and maintained. This proposal was fiercely 
opposed by Groen and gave rise to a violent agitation. The ministry 
struggled on, but its existence was precarious and internal dis- 
sensions at length led to its resignation (July, 1856). The elections 
of 1856 had effected but little change in the constitution of the 
Second Chamber, and the anti-revolutionary J. J. L. van der 
Brugghen was called upon to form a ministry. Groen himself 
declined office. Van der Brugghen made an effort to conciliate 
opposition ; and a bill for primary education was introduced (1857) 
upholding the principle of the "mixed" schools, but with the 
proviso that the aim of the teaching was to be the instruction of 



TO THE DEATH OF THORBECKE, 1849-1872 415 

the children "in Christian and social virtues"; at the same time 
*' separate" schools were permitted and under certain conditions 
would be subsidised by the State. Groen again did his utmost to 
defeat this bill, but he was not successful ; and after stormy debates 
it became law (July, 1857). The liberals obtained a majority at the 
elections of 1858, and Van der Brugghen resigned. But the king 
would not send for Thorbecke; and J. J. Rochussen, a former 
governor- general of the Dutch East Indies, was asked to form a 
"fusion" ministry. During his tenure of office (1858-60) slavery 
was abolished in the East Indies, though not the cultivation- system, 
which was but a kind of disguised slavery. The way in which the 
Javanese suffered by this system of compulsory labour for the profit 
of the home country — the amount received by the Dutch 
treasury being not less than 250 million florins in thirty years — 
was now scathingly exposed by the brilliant writer Douwes Dekker. 
He had been an official in Java, and his novel Max Havelaar^ 
published in i860 under the pseudonym " Multatuli," was widely 
read, and brought to the knowledge of the Dutch public the 
character of the system which was being enforced. 

Holland was at this time far behind Belgium in the construction 
of a system of railroads, to the great hindrance of trade. A bill, 
however, proposed by the ministry to remedy this want was 
rejected by the First Chamber, and Rochussen resigned. The king 
again declined to send for Thorbecke ; and Van Hall was summoned 
for the third time to form a ministr}\ He succeeded in securing the 
passage of a proposal to spend not less than 10 million florins 
annually in the building of State railways. All Van Hall's parlia- 
mentary adroitness and practised opportunism could not, however, 
long maintain in office a ministry supported cordially by no party. 
Van Hall gave up the unthankful task (February, 1861), but still 
it was not Thorbecke, but Baron S. van Heemstra that was called 
upon to take his place. For a few months only was the ministry 
able to struggle on in the face of a liberal majority. There was now 
no alternative but to offer the post of first minister to Thorbecke, 
who accepted the office (January 31, 1862). 

The second ministry of Thorbecke lasted for four years, and was 
actively engaged during that period in domestic, trade and colonial 
reforms. Thorbecke, as a free-trader, at once took in hand the policy 
of lowering all duties except for revenue purposes. The communal 



4i6 REIGN OF WILLIAM III 

dues were extinguished. A law for secondary and technical education 
was passed in 1863 ; and in the same year slavery was abolished in 
Surinam and the West Indies. Other bills were passed for the 
canalising of the Hook of Holland, and the reclaiming of the estuary 
of the Y. This last project included the construction of a canal, the 
Canal of Holland, with the artificial harbour of Ymuiden at its 
entrance, deep enough for ocean liners to reach Amsterdam. With 
the advent of Fransen van de Putte, as colonial minister in 1863, 
began a series of far-reaching reforms in the East Indies, including 
the lowering of the differential duties. His views, however, con- 
cerning the scandal of the cultivation-system in Java did not meet 
with the approval of some of his colleagues ; and Thorbecke himself 
supported the dissentients. The ministry resigned, and Van de 
Putte became head of the government. He held oflftce for four 
months only. His bill for the abolition of the cultivation-system 
and the conversion of the native cultivators into possessors of their 
farms was thrown out by a small majority, Thorbecke with a few 
liberals and some Catholics voting with the conservatives against 
it. This was the beginning of a definite liberal split, which was to 
continue for years. 

A coalition-ministry followed under the presidency of J. van 
Heemskerk (Interior) and Baron van Zuylen van Nyevelt (Foreign 
Affairs). The colonial minister Mijer shortly afterwards resigned 
in order to take the post of governor-general of the East Indies. 
This appointment did not meet with the approval of the Second 
Chamber; and the government suffered a defeat. On this they 
persuaded the king not only to dissolve the Chamber, but to issue 
a proclamation impressing upon the electors the need of the 
country for a more stable administration. The result was the return 
of a majority for the Heemskerk-Van Zuylen combination. It is 
needless to say that Thorbecke and his followers protested strongly 
against the dragging of the king's name into a political contest, as 
gravely unconstitutional. The ministry had a troubled existence. 

The results of the victory of Prussia over Austria at Sadowa, and 
the formation of the North German Confederation under Prussian 
leadership, rendered the conduct of foreign relations a difficult and 
delicate task, especially as regards Luxemburg and Limburg, both 
of which were under the personal sovereignty of William III, and 
at the same time formed part of the old German Confederation. 



TO THE DEATH OF THORBECKE, 1849-1872 417 

The rapid success of Prussia had seriously perturbed public 
opinion in France; and Napoleon HI, anxious to obtain some 
territorial compensation which would satisfy French amour-propre y 
entered into negotiations with William HI for the sale of the Grand 
Duchy of Luxemburg. The king was himself alarmed at the 
Prussian annexations, and Queen Sophie and the Prince of Orange 
had decided French leanings ; and, as Bismarck had given the king 
reason to believe that no objection would be raised, the negotia- 
tions for the sale were seriously undertaken. On March 26, 1867, 
the Prince of Orange actually left the Hague, bearing the document 
containing the Grand Duke's consent ; and on April i the cession 
was to be finally completed. On that very day the Prussian ambas^ 
sadors at Paris and the Hague were instructed to say that any cession 
of Luxemburg to France would mean war with Prussia. It was a 
difficult situation ; and a conference of the Great Powers met at 
London on May 1 1 to deal with it. Its decision was that Luxemburg 
should remain as an independent state, whose neutrality was 
guaranteed collectively by the Powers, under the sovereignty of 
the House of Nassau; that the town of Luxemburg should be 
evacuated by its Prussian garrison ; and that Limburg should hence- 
forth be an integral part of the kingdom of the Netherlands. 

Van Zuylen was assailed in the Second Chamber for his exposing 
the country to danger and humiliation in this matter ; and the Foreign 
Office vote was rejected by a small majority. The ministry resigned ; 
but, rather than address himself to Thorbecke, the king sanctioned 
a dissolution, with the result of a small gain of seats to the liberals. 
Heemskerk and Van Zuylen retained office for a short time in the 
face of adverse votes, but finally resigned; and the king had no 
alternative but to ask Thorbecke to form a ministry. He himself 
declined office, but he chose a cabinet of young liberals who had 
taken no part in the recent political struggles, P. P. van Bosse 
becoming first minister. 

From this time forward there was no further attempt on the part 
of the royal authority to interfere in the constitutional course of 
parliamentary government. VanBosse's ministry, scoffingly called by 
their opponents " Thorbecke's marionettes," maintained themselves 
in office for two years (1868-70), passing several useful measures, but 
are chiefly remembered for the abolition of capital punishment. The 
outbreak of the Franco-German war in 1870 found, however, the 

E. H. H. 27 



4i8 REIGN OF WILLIAM III 

Dutch army and fortresses ill-prepared for an emergency, when 
the maintenance of strict neutrality demanded an efficient defence 
of the frontiers. The ministry was not strong enough to resist the 
attacks made upon it ; and at last the real leader of the liberal party, 
the veteran Thorbecke, formed his third ministry (January, 1871). 
But Thorbecke was now in ill-health, and the only noteworthy 
achievement of his last premiership was an agreement with Great 
Britain by which the Dutch possessions on the coast of Guinea 
were ceded to that country in exchange for a free hand being given 
to the Dutch in Surinam. The ministry, having suffered a defeat 
on the subject of the cost of the proposed army re-organisation, was 
on the point of resigning, when Thorbecke suddenly died (June 5, 
1872). His death brought forth striking expressions of sympathy 
and appreciation from men and journals representing all parties 
in the State. For five-and-twenty years, in or out of office, his had 
been the dominating influence in Dutch politics ; and it was felt on 
all sides that the country was the poorer for the loss of a man of 
outstanding ability and genuine patriotism. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

THE LATER REIGN OF WILLIAM III, AND THE 
REGENCY OF QUEEN EMMA, 1872-1898 

The death of Thorbecke was the signal for a growing cleavage 
between the old doctrinaire school of liberals, who adhered to the 
principles of 1848, and the advanced liberalism of many of the 
younger progressive type. To Gerrit de Vries was entrusted the 
duty of forming a ministry, and he had the assistance of the former 
first minister, F. van de Putte. His position was weakened by the 
opposition of the Catholic party, who became alienated from the 
liberals, partly on the religious education question, but more 
especially because their former allies refused to protest against the 
Italian occupation of Rome. The election of 1873 ^^^ ^^^ improve 
matters, for it left the divided liberals to face an opposition of equal 
strength, whenever the conservatives, anti-revolutionaries and 
Catholics acted together. This same year saw the first phase of the 
war with the piratical state of Achin. An expedition of 3600 men 
under General Kohler was sent out against the defiant sultan in 
April, 1873, but suffered disaster, the General himself dying of 
disease. A second stronger expedition under General van Swieten 
was then dispatched, which was successful; and the sultan was 
deposed in January, 1874. This involved heavy charges on the 
treasury; and the ministry, after suffering two reverses in the 
Second Chamber, resigned (June, 1874), being succeeded by a 
Heemskerk coalition ministry. 

Heemskerk in his former premiership had shown himself to be 
a clever tactician, and for three years he managed to maintain 
himself in office against the combined opposition of the advanced 
liberals, the anti-revolutionaries and the Catholics. Groen van 
Prinsterer died in May, 1876; and with his death the hitherto 
aristocratic and exclusive party, which he had so long led, became 
transformed. Under its new leader, Abraham Kuyper, it became 
democratised, and, by combining its support of the religious principle 
in education with that of progressive reform, was able to exercise 

27 — 2 



420 LATER REIGN OF WILLIAM III 

a far wider influence in the political sphere. Kuyper, for many years 
a Calvinist pastor, undertook in 1872 the editorship of the anti- 
revolutionary paper, De Standdard. In 1874 ^^ ^'^^ elected member 
for Gouda, but resigned in order to give his whole time to journalism 
in the interest of the political principles to which he now devoted 
his great abilities. 

The Heemskerk ministry had the support of no party, but by 
the opportunist skill of its chief it continued in office for three years ; 
no party was prepared to take its place, and *' the government of the 
king must be carried on." The measures that were passed in this 
time were useful rather than important. An attempt to deal with 
primary instruction led to the downfall of the ministry. The 
elections of 1877 strengthened the liberals; and, an amendment to 
the speech from the throne being carried, Heemskerk resigned. His 
place was taken by Joannes Kappeyne, leader of the progressive 
liberals. A new department of State was now created, that of 
Waterways and Commerce, whose duties in a country like Holland, 
covered with a net-work of dykes and canals, was of great impor- 
tance. A measure which denied State support to the "private" 
schools was bitterly resisted by the anti-revolutionaries and the 
Catholics, whose union in defence of religious education was from 
this time forward to become closer. The outlay in connection with 
the costly Achin war, which had broken out afresh, led to a 
considerable deficit in the budget. In consequence of this a proposal 
for the construction of some new canals was rejected by a majority 
of one . The financial difficulties , which had necessitated the imposing 
of unpopular taxes, had once more led to divisions in the liberal 
ranks; and Kappeyne, finding that the king would not support his 
proposals for a revision of the Fundamental Law, saw no course 
open to him but resignation. 

In these circumstances the king decided to ask an anti-revolu- 
tionary, Count van Lynden van Sandenburg, to form a "Ministry 
of AflFairs," composed of moderate men of various parties. Van 
Lynden had a difficult task, but with the strong support of the king 
his policy of conciliation carried him safely through four disquieting 
and anxious years. The revolt of the Boers in the Transvaal against 
British rule caused great excitement in Holland, and aroused much 
sympathy. Van Lynden was careful to avoid any steps which might 
give umbrage to England, and he was successful in his efforts. The 



AND REGENCY OF QUEEN EMMA, 1872-1898 421 

Achin trouble was, however, still a cause of much embarrassment. 
Worst of all was the series of bereavements which at this time befell 
the House of Orange-Nassau. In 1877 Queen Sophie died, affection- 
ately remembered for her interest in art and science, and her exem- 
plary life. The king's brother, Henry, for thirty years Stadholder of 
Luxemburg, died childless early in 1879 ; and shortly afterwards in 
June the Prince of Orange, who had never married, passed away 
suddenlv at Paris. The two sons of William Hi's uncle Frederick 
predeceased their father, whose death took place in 1881 . Alexander, 
the younger son of the king, was sickly and feeble-minded ; and with 
his decease in 1884, the male line of the House of Orange-Nassau 
became extinct. Foreseeing such a possibility in January, 1879, the 
already aged king took in second wedlock the youthful Princess 
Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont. Great was the joy of the Dutch 
people, when, on August 31, 1880, she gave birth to a princess, 
Wilhelmina, who became from this time forth the hope of a 
dynasty, whose histor}- for three centuries had been bound up with 
that of the nation. 

The Van Lynden administration, having steered its way through 
many parliamentar}^ crises for four years, was at last beaten upon a 
proposal to enlarge the franchise, and resigned (February 26, 1883). 
To Heemskerk was confided the formation of a coalition ministry 
of a neutral character ; and this experienced statesman became for 
the third time first minister of the crown. The dissensions in the 
liberal party converted the Second Chamber into a meeting-place 
of hostile factions ; and Heemskerk was better fitted than any other 
politician to be the head of a government which, having no majority 
to support it, had to rely upon tactful management and expediency. 
The rise of a socialist party under the enthusiastic leadership of 
a former Lutheran pastor, Domela Nieuwenhuis, added to the 
perplexities of the position. It soon became evident that a revision 
of the Fundamental Law and an extension of the franchise, which 
the king no longer opposed, was inevitable. Meanwhile the death 
of Prince Alexander and the king's growing infirmities made it 
necessary to provide, by a bill passed on August 2, 1884, that Queen 
Emma should become regent during her daughter's minority. 

Everything conspired to beset the path of the Heemskerk 
ministry with hindrances to administrative or legislative action. 
The bad state of the finances (chiefly owing to the calls for the 
Achin war) the subdivision of all parties into groups, the socialist 



422 LATER REIGN OF WILLIAM III 

agitation and the weak health of the king, created something like 
a parliamentary deadlock. A revision of the constitution became 
more and more pressing as the only remedy, though no party was 
keenly in its favour. Certain proposals for revision were made by 
the government (March, 1885), but the anti-revolutionaries, the 
Catholics and the conservatives were united in opposition, unless 
concessions were made in the matter of religious education. Such 
concessions as were finally offered were rejected (April, 1886), and 
Heemskerk offered his resignation. Baron Mackay (anti-revolu- 
tionary) declining office, a dissolution followed. The result of the 
elections, however, was inconclusive, the liberals of all shades having 
a bare majority of four ; but there was no change of ministry. A 
more conciliatory spirit fortunately prevailed under stress of cir- 
cumstances in the new Chamber ; and at last, after many debates, the 
law revising the constitution was passed through both Chambers, 
and approved by the king (November 30, 1887). It was a com- 
promise measure, and no violent changes were made. The First 
Chamber was to consist of 50 members, appointed by the Provincial 
Councils; the Second Chamber of 100 members, chosen by an 
electorate of male persons of not less than 25 years of age with a 
residential qualification and possessing "signs of fitness and social 
well-being" — a vague phrase requiring future definition. The 
number of electors was increased from (in round numbers) 100,000 
to 350,000, but universal male suffrage, the demand of the socialists 
and more advanced liberals, was not conceded. 

The elections of 1888 were fought on the question of religious 
education in the primary schools. The two *' Christian " parties, the 
Calvinist anti-revolutionaries under the leadership of Dr Kuyper, 
and the Catholics, who had found a leader of eloquence and power 
in Dr Schaepman, a Catholic priest, coalesced in a common 
programme for a revision of Kappeyne's Education Act of 1878. 
The coalition obtained a majority, 27 anti-revolutionaries and 25 
Catholics being returned as against 46 liberals of various groups. 
For the first time a socialist, Domela Nieuwenhuis, was elected. 
The conservative party was reduced to one member. In the First 
Chamber the liberals still commanded a majority. In April, 1888, 
Baron Mackay, an anti-revolutionary of moderate views, became 
first minister. The coalition made the revision of the Education 
Act of 1878 their first business; and they obtained the support 
of some liberals who were anxious to see the school question out 



AND REGENCY OF QUEEN EMMA, 1 872-1 898 423 

of the way. The so-called "Mackay Law" was passed in 1889. It 
provided that ''private" schools should receive State support on 
condition that they conformed to the official regulations ; that the 
number of scholars should be not less than twenty-five ; and that 
they should be under the management of some body, religious or 
otherwise, recognised by the State. This settlement was a com- 
promise, but it offered the solution of an acute controversy and was 
found to work satisfactorily. 

The death of King William on November 23, 1890, was much 
mourned by his people. He was a man of strong and somewhat 
narrow views, but during his reign of 41 years his sincere love for 
his country was never in doubt, nor did he lose popularity by his 
anti-liberal attitude on many occasions, for it was known to arise 
from honest conviction ; and it was amidst general regret that the 
last male representative of the House of Orange-Nassau was laid 
in his grave. 

A proposal by the Catholic minister Borgesius for the intro- 
duction of universal personal military service was displeasing 
however to many of his own party, and it was defeated with the 
help of Catholic dissidents. An election followed, and the liberals 
regained a majority. A new government was formed of a moderate 
progressive character, the premier being Cornells van Tienhoven. 
It was a ministry of talents, Tak van Poortvliet (interior) and 
N. G. Pierson (finance) being men of marked ability. Pierson had 
more SHCcess than any of his predecessors in bringing to an end 
the recurring deficits in the annual balance sheet. He imposed an 
income tax on all incomes above 650 florins derived from salaries 
or commerce. All other sources of income were capitalised (funds, 
investments, farming, etc.) ; and a tax was placed on all capital above 
13,000 florins. Various duties and customs were lowered, to the 
advantage of trade. There was, however, a growing demand for a 
still further extension of the franchise, and for an official inter- 
pretation of that puzzling qualification of the Revision of 1889 — 
*' signs of fitness and social well-being." Tak van Poortvliet brought 
in a measure which would practically have introduced universal 
male suffrage, for he interpreted the words as including all who 
could write and did not receive doles from charity. This proposal, 
brought forward in 1893, ^g^ii^ split up the liberal party. The 
moderates under the leadership of Samuel van Houten vigorously 
opposed such an increase of the electorate ; and they had the support 



424 LATER REIGN OF WILLIAM III 

of the more conservative anti-revolutionaries and a large part of 
the Catholics. The more democratic followers of Kuyper and 
Schaepman and the progressive radicals ranged themselves on the 
side of Tak van PoortvUet. All parties were thus broken up into 
hostile groups. The election of 1894 was contested no longer on 
party lines, but between Takkians and anti-Takkians. The result 
was adverse to Tak, his following only mustering 46 votes against 
54 for their opponents. 

A new administration therefore came into office (May, 1894) 
under the presidency of Jonkheer Johan Roell with Van Houten 
as minister of the interior. On Van Hou ten's shoulders fell the 
task of preparing a new electoral law. His proposals were finally 
approved in 1896. Before this took place the minister of finance, 
Spenger van Eyk, had succeeded in relieving the treasury by the 
conversion of the public debt from a 3J to a 3 per cent, security. 
The Van Houten reform of the franchise was very complicated, as 
there were six different categories of persons entitled to exercise 
the suffrage: (i) payers of at least one guilder in direct taxation; 
(2) householders or lodgers paying a certain minimum rent and 
having a residential qualification ; (3) proprietors or hirers of vessels 
of 24 tons at least ; (4) earners of a certain specified wage or salary ; 
(5) investors of 100 guilders in the public funds or of 50 guilders 
in a savings bank ; (6) persons holding certain educational diplomas. 
This very wide and comprehensive franchise raised the number of 
electors to about 700,000. 

The election of 1897, after first promising a victory to the more 
conservative groups, ended by giving a small majority to the liberals, 
the progressive section winning a number of seats, and the socialists 
increasing their representation in the Chamber. A liberal-concen- 
tration cabinet took the place of the Roell- Van Houten ministry, 
its leading members being Pierson (finance) and Goeman- 
Borgesius (interior). For a right understanding of the parliamentary 
situation at this time and during the years that follow, a brief 
account of the groups and sections of groups into which political 
parties in Holland were divided, must here interrupt the narrative 
of events. 

It has already been told that the deaths of Thorbecke and Groen 
van Prinsterer led to a breaking up of the old parties and the for- 
mation of new groups. The Education Act of 1878 brought about 
an alliance of the two parties, who made the question of religious 



AND REGENCY OF QUEEN EMMA, 1872-1898 425 

education in the primary schools the first article of their political 
programme — the anti-revolutionaries led by the ex-Calvinist 
pastor Dr Abraham Kuyper and the Catholics by Dr Schaepman, 
aCatholic priest. Kuyper and Schaepman were alike able journalists, 
and used the press with conspicuous success for the propagation 
of their views, both being advocates of social reform on democratic 
lines. The anti-revolutionaries, however, did not, as a body, follow 
the lead of Kuyper. An aristocratic section, whose principles were 
those of Groen van Prinsterer, "orthodox" and "conservative," 
under the appellation of "Historical Christians," were opposed to 
the democratic ideas of Kuyper, and were by tradition anti- Catholic. 
Their leader was Jonkheer Savomin Lohman. For some years there 
was a separate Frisian group of "Historical Christians," but these 
finally amalgamated with the larger body. The liberals meanwhile 
had split up into three groups: (i) the Old Independent (vrij) 
Liberals; (2) the Liberal Progressive Union {Unie van vooruit- 
strevende Liheralen) ; (3) Liberal-Democrats {vrijzinnig-democratis- 
chen Bond), The socialist party was a development of the Algemeene 
Nederlandsche Werklieden Verbond founded in 1871 . Ten years later, 
by the activities of the fiery agitator, Domela Nieuwenhuis, the 
Social-Democratic Bond was formed ; and the socialists became a 
political party. The loss of Nieuwenhuis' seat in 189 1 had the effect 
of making him abandon constitutional methods for a revolutionary 
and anti-religious crusade. The result of this was a split in the 
socialist party and the formation, under the leadership of Troelstra, 
Van Kol and Van der Goes, of the " Social-Democratic Workmen's 
Party," which aimed at promoting the welfare of the proletariat on 
socialistic lines, but by parliamentary means. The followers of 
Domela Nieuwenhuis, whose openly avowed principles were "the 
destruction of actual social conditions by all means legal and illegal," 
were after 1894 known as "the Socialist Bond." This anarchical 
party, who took as their motto "neither God nor master," rapidly 
decreased in number ; their leader, discouraged by his lack of success 
in 1898, withdrew finally from the political arena ; and the Socialist 
Bond was dissolved. This gave an accession of strength to the 
"Social-Democratic Workmen's Party," which has since the 
beginning of the present century gradually acquired an increasing 
hold upon the electorate. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

THE REIGN OF QUEEN WILHELMINA, 1898-1917 

The Pierson-Borgesius ministry had not been long in office when 
Queen Wilhelmina attained her majority (August 31, 1898) amidst 
public enthusiasm. At the same time the Queen-Mother received 
many expressions of high appreciation for the admirable manner 
in which for eight years she had discharged her constitutional duties. 
The measures passed by this administration dealt with many 
subjects of importance. Personal military service was at last, after 
years of controversy, enforced by law, ecclesiastics and students 
alone being excepted. Attendance at school up to the age of 13 was 
made obligatory, and the subsidies for the upkeep of the schools 
and the payment of teachers were substantially increased. The year 
1899 was memorable for the meeting of the first Peace Congress 
(on the initiative of the Tsar Nicholas II) at the Huis in't Bosch. 
The deliberations and discussions began on May 18 and lasted until 
June 29. By the irony of events, a few months later (October 10) 
a Nvar broke out, in which the Dutch people felt a great and 
sympathetic interest, between the two Boer republics of South 
Africa and Great Britain. Bitter feelings were aroused, and the 
queen did but reflect the national sentiment when she personally 
received in the most friendly manner President Kriiger, who 
arrived in Holland as a fugitive on board a Dutch man-of-war in 
the summer of 1900. The official attitude af the government was 
however perfectly correct, and there was never any breach in the 
relations between Great Britain and the Netherlands. 

The marriage of Queen Wilhelmina, on February 7, 1901, with 
Prince Henry of Mecklenburg- Schwerin was welcomed by the 
people, as affording hopes, for some years to be disappointed, of 
the birth of an heir to the throne. 

The elections of 1901 found the liberal ministry out of favour 
through the laws enforcing military service and obligatory attend- 
ance at school. Against them the indefatigable Dr Kuyper, who 
had returned to active politics in 1897, had succeeded in uniting 



REIGN OF QUEEN WILHELMINA, 1898-1917 427 

the three ** Church" groups — ^the democratic anti-revolutionaries, 
the aristocratic Historical Christians (both orthodox Calvinists) and 
the Catholics of all sections — into a "Christian Coalition" in sup- 
port of religious teaching in the schools. The victory lay with 
the coalition, and Dr Kuyper became first minister. The new 
administration introduced a measure on Higher Education, which 
was rejected by the First Chamber. A dissolution of this Chamber 
led to the majority being reversed, and the measure was passed. 
Another measure revised the Mackay Law and conferred a larger 
subsidy on ''private" schools. The socialist party under the able 
leadership of Troelstra had won several seats at the election ; and 
in 1903 a general strike was threatened unless the government 
conceded the demands of the socialist labour party. The threat 
was met with firmness ; an anti-strike law was quickly passed ; the 
military was called out ; and the strike collapsed. The costly war in 
Achin, which had been smouldering for some years, burst out again 
with violence in the years 1902-3, and led to sanguinary reprisals 
on the part of the Dutch soldiery, the report of which excited 
indignation against the responsible authorities. Various attempts 
had been made in 1895 ^^^ ^^99 ^^ introduce protectionist duties, 
but unsuccessfully. 

The quadrennial elections of 1905 found all the liberal groups 
united in a combined assault upon the Christian Coalition. A 
severe electoral struggle ensued, with the result that 45 liberals 
and 7 socialists were returned against 48 coalitionists. Dr Kuyper 
resigned ; and a new ministry, under the leadership of the moderate 
liberal, De Meester, took its place. The De Meester government 
was however dependent upon the socialist vote, and possessed no 
independent majority in either Chamber. For the first time a 
ministry of agriculture, industry and trade was created. Such an 
administration could only lead a precarious existence, and in 1907 
an adverse vote upon the military estimates led to its resignation. 
Th. Heemskerk undertook the task of forming a new cabinet from 
the anti-revolutionary and Catholic groups, and at the next general 
election of 1909 he won a conclusive victory at the polls. This 
victory was obtained by wholesale promises of social reforms, 
including old age pensions and poor and sick relief. As so often 
happens, such a programme could not be carried into eflFect without 
heavy expenditure ; and the means were not forthcoming. To meet 



428 REIGN OF QUEEN WILHELMINA, 1898- 1917 

the demand a bill was introduced in August, 191 1, by the finance 
minister, Dr Kolkmar, to increase considerably the existing duties, 
and to extend largely the list of dutiable imports. This bill led 
to a widespread agitation in the country, and many petitions were 
presented against it, with the result that it was withdrawn. A 
proposal made by this ministry in 1910 to spend 38,000,000 florins 
on the fortification of Flushing excited much adverse criticism in 
the press of Belgium, England and France, on the ground that it 
had been done at the suggestion of the German government, the 
object being to prevent the British fleet from seizing Flushing in 
the event of the outbreak of an Anglo- German war. The press 
agitation met, however, with no countenance on the part of 
responsible statesmen in any of the countries named ; it led never- 
theless to the abandonment of the original proposal and the passing 
of a bill in 1912 for the improvement of the defences of the Dutch 
sea-ports generally. 

The election of 191 3 reversed the verdict of 1909. Probably in 
no country has the principle of the "swing of the pendulum " been 
so systematically verified as it has in Holland in recent times. The 
returns were in 1913: Church parties, 41 ; liberals of all groups, 
39 ; socialists, 15. The most striking change was the increase in the 
socialist vote, their representation being more than doubled ; and, 
as in 1905 , they held the balance of parties in their hands. With some 
difficulty Dr Cort van den Linden succeeded in forming a liberal 
ministry. The outbreak of the Great War in August, 19 14, prevented 
them from turning their attention to any other matters than those 
arising from the maintenance of a strict neutrality in a conflict 
which placed them in a most difficult and dangerous position. One 
of the first questions on which they had to take a critical decision 
was the closing of the Scheldt. As soon as Great Britain declared 
war on Germany (August 4) , Holland refused to allow any belligerent 
vessels to pass over its territorial waters. The events of the six years 
that have since passed are too near for comment here. The liberal 
ministry at least deserves credit for having steered the country 
safely through perilous waters. Nevertheless, at the quadrennial 
election of 19 17 there was the customary swing of the pendulum; 
and an anti- liberal ministry (September 6) was formed, with a 
Catholic, M. Ruys de Beerenbronck, as first minister. 



EPILOGUE 

The dynastic connection of Luxemburg with Holland ceased with 
the accession of Queen Wilhelmina. The conditions under which 
the Belgian province of Luxemburg was created, by the Treaty 
of Vienna in 1815, a grand-duchy under the sovereignty of the 
head of the House of Orange-Nassau with succession in default of 
heirs-male by the family compact, known as the Nassauischer Erb- 
verein, to the nearest male agnate of the elder branch of the Nassau 
family, have already been related. With the death of William HI the 
male line of the House of Orange-Nassau became extinct ; and the 
succession passed toAdolphus,Duke of Nassau -Weilburg. How un- 
fortunate and ill-advised was the action of the Congress of Vienna 
in the creation of the Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg was abundantly 
shown by the difficulties and passions which it aroused in the course 
of the negotiations for the erection of Belgium into an independent 
state (1830-39). By the treaty of April 19, 1839, the Walloon portion 
of Luxemburg became part of the kingdom of Belgium, but in ex- 
change for this cession the grand-duke obtained the sovereignty 
of a strip of the Belgian province of Limburg. This caused a fresh 
complication. 

Luxemburg in 181 5 was not merely severed from the Nether- 
lands; it, as a sovereign grand-duchy, was made a state of the 
Germanic confederation. By virtue of the exchange sanctioned by 
the treaty of 1839, the ceded portion of Limburg became a state of 
the confederation. But with the revision of the Dutch constitution, 
which in 1840 followed the final separation of Holland and Belgium, 
by the wish of the king his duchy of Limburg was included in the 
new Fundamental Law, and thus became practically a Dutch pro- 
vince. The Limburgers had thus a strange and ambiguous position. 
They had to pay taxes, to furnish military contingents and to send 
deputies to two different sovereign authorities. This state of things 
continued with more or less friction, until the victory of Prussia 
over Austria in 1866 led to the dissolution of the Germanic con- 
federation. At the conference of London, 1867, Luxemburg was 
declared to be an independent state, whose neutrality was guaranteed 



430 EPILOGUE 

by the Great Powers, while Limburg became an integral portion of 
the kingdom of the Netherlands. 

Since the middle of the last century the financial position of 
Holland has been continuously improving. The heavy indebted- 
ness of the country, in the period which followed the separation 
from Belgium, was gradually diminished. This was effected for a 
number of years by the doubtful expedient of the profits derived 
from the exploitation of the East Indian colonies through the 
'' Cultivation System." With the passing of the revised Fundamental 
Law of 1848 the control of colonial affairs and of the colonial 
budget was placed in the hands of the States-General ; and a con- 
siderable section of the Liberal party began henceforth to agitate 
for the abolition of a system which was very oppressive to the 
Javanese population. It was not, however, until 1871 that the 
reform was carried out. Meanwhile, chiefly by the efforts of Thor- 
becke, the methods of home finance had been greatly improved by 
the removal, so far as possible, of indirect imposts, and the intro- 
duction of a free trade policy, which since his days has been steadily 
maintained. Such a policy is admirably suitable to a country which 
possesses neither minerals nor coal^, and whose wealth is mainly 
due to sea- or river-borne trade, to dairy farming and to horti- 
culture . For its supply of corn and many other necessary commodities 
Holland has to look to other countries. The fisheries still form one 
of the staple industries of the land, and furnish a hardy sea-faring 
population for the considerable mercantile marine, which is needed 
for constant intercourse with a colonial empire (the third in im- 
portance at the present time) consisting chiefly of islands in a far- 
distant ocean. 

Between 1850 and 1914, 375,430,000 fl. have been devoted to the 
reduction of debt; and the Sinking Fund in 1915 was 6,346,000 fl. 
Since that date Holland has suffered from the consequences of the 
Great War, but, having successfully maintained her neutrality, she 
has suffered relatively far less than any of her neighbours. Taxation 
in Holland has always been high. It is to a large extent an artificial 
country ; and vast sums have been expended and must always be 
expended in the upkeep of the elaborate system of dykes and canals, 
by which the waters of the ocean and the rivers are controlled and 
prevented from flooding large areas of land lying below sea level. 

Culture in Holland is widely diffused. The well-to-do classes 

* The Belgian coal field extends into Dutch Limburg. 



EPILOGUE 431 

usually read and speak two or three languages beside their own ; 
and the Dutch language is a finished literary tongue of great 
flexibility and copiousness. The system of education is excellent. 
Since 1900 attendance at the primary schools between the ages of 
six and thirteen is compulsor}^ Between the primary schools inter- 
mediate education (middelbaaronderzcijs) is represented by'' burgher 
night-schools" and "higher burgher schools." The night-schools 
are intended for those engaged in agricultural or industrial work ; 
the "higher schools" for technical instruction, and much attention 
is paid to the study of the vier talen — French, English, German and 
Dutch. In connection with these there is an admirable School of 
Agriculture, Horticulture and Forestry at Wageningen in Gelder- 
land. To the teaching at Wageningen is largely due the acknowledged 
supremacy of Holland in scientific horticulture. There is a branch 
establishment at Groningen for agricultural training, and another 
at Deventer for instruction in subjects connected with colonial life. 
Tht gymnasia, which are to be found in every town, are preparatory^ 
to the universities. The course lasts six years; and the study of 
Latin and Greek in addition to modern languages is compulsory-. 
There are four universities. Ley den, Utrecht, Groningen and 
Amsterdam. The possession of a doctor's degree at one of these 
universities is necessary for magistrates, physicians, advocates, and 
for teachers in the gymnasia and higher burgher schools. 

In so small a country the literary output is remarkable, and, 
marked as it is bv scientific and intellectual distinction, deserves to 
be more widely read. The Dutch are justly proud of the great part 
their forefathers played during the War of Independence, and in 
the days of John de Witt and William III. For scientific historical 
research in the national archives, and in the publication of docu- 
ments bearing upon and illustrating the national annals, Dutch 
historians can compare favourably with those of any other country. 
Special mention should be made of the labours of Robert Fruin, 
who may be described as the founder of a school with many disciples, 
and whose collected works are a veritable treasure-house of 
brilliant historical studies, combining careful research with acute 
criticism. Among his many disciples the names of Dr P. J. Blok 
and Dr H. T. Colenbrander are perhaps the best known. 

In the department of Biblical criticism there have been in Holland 
several writers of European repute, foremost among whom stands 
the name of Abraham Kuenen. 



432 EPILOGUE 

Dutch writers of fiction have been and are far more numerous 
than could have been expected from the Hmited number of those 
able to read their works. In the second half of the 19th century, 
J. van Lennep and Mevrouw Bosboom-Toussaint were the most 
prolific writers. Both of these were followers of the Walter Scott 
tradition, their novels being mainly patriotic romances based upon 
episodes illustrating the past history of the Dutch people. Van 
Lennep 's contributions to literature were , however, by no means con- 
fined to the writing of fiction, as his great critical edition of Vondel's 
poetical works testifies. Mevrouw Bosboom-Toussaint 's novels 
were not only excellent from the literary point of view, but as repro- 
ductions of historical events were most conscientiously written. Her 
pictures, for instance, of the difficult and involved period of Leicester's 
governor-generalship are admirable. The writings of Douwes 
Dekker (under the pseudonym Multatuli) are noteworthy from the 
fact that his novel Max Havelaar, dealing with life in Java and 
setting forth the suflFerings of the natives through the '* cultivation 
system," had a large share in bringing about its abolition. 

The 20th century school of Dutch novelists is of a different type 
from their predecessors and deals with life and life's problems in 
every form. Among the present-day authors of fiction, the fore- 
most place belongs to Louis Conperus, an idealist and mystic, who 
as a stylist is unapproached by any of his contemporaries. 

No account of modern Holland would be complete without a 
notice of the great revival of Dutch painting, which has taken place 
in the past half century. Without exaggeration it may indeed be 
said that this modern renascence of painting in Holland is not 
unworthy to be compared with that of the days of Rembrandt. The 
names of Joseph Israels, Hendrik Mesdag, Vincent van Gogh, Anton 
Maure, and, not least, of the three talented brothers Maris, have 
attained a wide and well-deserved reputation. And to these must 
be added others of high merit: Bilders, ScheflFer, Bosboom, Roc- 
hussen, Bakhuysen, Du Chattel, De Haas and Haverman. The 
traditional representation of the Dutchman as stolid, unemotional, 
wholly absorbed in trade and material interests, is a caricature. These 
latter-day artists, like those of the 17th century, conclusively prove 
that the Dutch race is singularly sensitive to the poetry of form and 
colour, and that it possesses an inherited capacity and power for 
excelling in the technical qualities of the painter's art. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

GENERAL 

(a) ARCHIVALIA. BOOKS OF REFERENCE 

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G. D. J. Schotel. 27 vols. Haarlem. 1851-70. 
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Verslag aangaande een onderzoek in Duitschland naar Archi- 

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Verslag aangaande een voorloopig onderzoek in Engelandt naar 

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Archivalia, belangrijk voor de gesch. v. N. The Hague. 1897. 
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Catalogus van de pamfletten-verzameling berustende in de 

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1900 verschenen. Ley den. 1905. 
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Blok, P. J. Geschiedenis des Vaderlands. 9 vols. Groningen. 1892- 

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English translation in five parts. London and New York,. 
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Fruin, R. Geschiedenis der Staat-Instellingen in Nederland tot den 

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Rachfeld, F. Margaretha von Parma, Statthalterin der Niederlande, 

1559-67. Munich. 1895. 

XVIlTH CENTURY 

(a) CONTEMPORARY WORKS AND COLLECTIONS 
OF ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS 

AiTZEMA, L. V. Saken van Staet en Oorlog in ende omtrent de Vereen. 
Nederlanden, 1621-69. 7 vols. The Hague. 1669-71. 

Verhael van de Nederlandsche Vredehandel, 1621-49. 2 vols. 

The Hague. 1650. 

28 — 2 



436 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

AiTZEMA, L. V. Herstelde Leeuw of discours over 't gepassert in de 

Vereen. Nederlanden, 1650-1. The Hague. 1652. 
Albuquerque, Duarte de. Memorias Diarias della guerra del Brasil per 

discurso de nueve afios desde el de 1630. Madrid. 1654. 
Archief v. den Raadpensionaris Antonie Heinsius, 1683-97. 3 vols. 

The Hague. 1867-80. 
AvAux, CoMTE d' (Jean Antoine de Mesnier). Negociations en Hol- 

lande, 1679-88. 6 vols. Paris. 1750-4. 
Barlaeus, C. Rerum per octennium in Brasilia et alibi nuper gestarum 

sub praefectura Com. J. Mauritii Nassoviae historia. Amsterdam. 

1647. 

Epistolarum liber. 2 vols. Amsterdam. 1667. 

Burnet, G. (Bishop of Salisbury). History of my own times. 2 vols. 

London. 1724-34. 
Capellen, Alex, van der. Gedenkschriften, 1621-54, uitg. d. R. J. v. 

d. Capellen. 2 vols. Utrecht. 1777-8. 
D'Estrades, Comte G. Lettres, memoires, negociations depuis 1637. 

9 vols. London. 1743. 
Gardiner, S. R. Letters and Papers rel. to the First Dutch War, 1652-4. 

2 vols. London. 1 899-1 900. 
Groen v. Prinsterer, G. Archives ou Correspondance de la Maison 

d'Orange. 2^ serie. 3 vols. Utrecht. 1841-61. 
Grotius, Hugo. Epistolae ad Gallos. Leyden. 1650. 
HooFT, P. C. Brieven (1600-47) met toelichtingen door v. Vloten. 

4 vols. Leyden. 1655-7. 
HuYGHENS, CoNSTANTijN. Dagbock, 1606-85. Ed. J. H. Unger. 

Amsterdam. 1885. 

Memoires. Ed. T. Jorissen. The Hague. 1873. 

HuYGHENS, CoNSTANTijN DE ZooN. Joumael gcdurcnde de veld- 

tochten der Jaren 1673, 1675, 1676, 1677 en 1678. Utrecht. 

1831. 

Laet, J. de. Historie ofte jaerlijck verhael van de verrichtingen der 
West Indische Compagnie, sedert 1636. Leyden. 1644. 

Marie, Reine d'Angleterre, epouse de Guillaume III, Lettres et Me- 
moires de. Collection de doc. authent. inedits publ. par Mad. 
Comtesse Bentinck. The Hague. 1880. 

Mary, Queen of England, Memoirs of. Ed. E. Doelmer. Leipzig. 
1886. 

Temple, Sir W. Letters written by W. Temple and other ministers of 
State containing an account of the most important transactions that 
passed from 1665-72. 3 vols. London. 1702-3. 

Letters written during his being ambassador at the Hague to the 

Earl of Arlington and John Trevor, Secretaries of State, by D. Jones. 
London. 1699. 

Thurloe, J. Collection of State Papers, etc. 7 vols. London. 1702-3. 
Wicquefort, Abraham de. Histoire des Provinces Unies des Pays-Bas 

depuis la paix de Munster, 1648-58. Edd. Lenting and Van Buren. 

4 vols. Amsterdam. 1861-74. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 437 

Witt, J. de. Brieven...gewisselt tusschen den Heer Johann De Witt... 
ende de gevolmagtigden v. d. Staet d. Vereen. Nederlanden, so in 
Vrankryck, Engelandt, Zweden, Denemarken, Poolen enz. 1652-69. 
6 vols. The Hague. 1723-5. 

(b) LATER WORKS 

Beins, L. Jean de Witt en zijne buitenlandsche politiek, 1653-60. 
Groningen. 1871. 

Brill, W. C. Cromwell's strijving naar eene coalitie tusschen de Neder- 
landen en de Britsche republiek. Amsterdam. 1891. 

Edmundson, George. Anglo-Dutch Rivalry in the first half of the 17th 
century. Oxford. 1911. 

Fruin, R. De oorlogsplannen van Prins Willem II na zijn aanslag op 
Amsterdam in 1650. The Hague. 1895. 

Het process van Buat, 1666. The Hague. 1881. 

Geddes, J. History of the administration of John De Witt. The Hague. 

1879. 

Japikse, N. De verwikkelingen tusschen de Republiek en Engeland, 

1660-5. London. 1900. 
Lefevre-Pontalis, a. Vingt annees de Republique parlementaire au 

XVII 6 siecle. Jean de Witt, Grand Pensionaris de Hollande. 2 vols. 

Paris. 1884. 
MuLLER, P. L. Wilhelm III von Oranien und Georg Friedrich van 

Waldeck. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Kampfes um das Euro- 

paische Gleichgewicht, 1679-92. 2 vols. The Hague. 1872-80. 

Nederland en de Groote Keurvorst. The Hague. 1879. 

MuTZUKURi, G. Englisch-Niederlandische Unionsstrebungen im Zeit- 

alter Cromwell's. Tubingen. 1891. 
SiRTEMA DE Grovestins. GuiUaumc III et Louis XIV. 8 vols. Paris. 

1868. 
Treitschke, H. von. Die RepubHk der Vereinigten Niederlande. His- 

torische und poHtische Aufsatze. 4 vols. Leipzig. 1870. 

(c) BIOGRAPHICAL 

Baumgartner, Alexander. Joost van den Vondel, zijn leven en zijne 

werken. (Trs. from German.) Amsterdam. 1886. 
Brandt, C. Leven en bedrijf van Michiel De Ruyter. Amsterdam. 

1687. 
Dalton, C. Life and times of Sir Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon, 

Colonel of an English Regiment in the Dutch Service, 1605-31. 

2 vols. London. 1885. 
Edmundson, G. Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. (Eng. Hist. Rev. 

41, 264 — 1890.) 

Louis de Geer. (Eng. Hist. Rev. 685 — 1891.) 

Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft. (Eng. Hist. Rev. 77 — 1894.) 

Geer, J. L. W. de. Lodewijk de Geer van Finspong en Leufsta, 1593- 
1652. Utrecht. 1882. 



438 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Kemp, C. M. v. d. Maurits van Nassau, prins v. Oranje, in zijn leven 

en verdiensten. 4 vols. Rotterdam. 1843. 
Le Clercq, p. Het leven van Frederick Hendrick. 2 vols. The Hague. 

1737- 
Markham, C. B. The fighting Veres. Lives of Sir Francis Vere and Sir 

Horace Vere, successively generals of the Queen's forces in the Low 

Countries. Boston. 1888. 
Michel, E. Rembrandt, sa vie, son ceuvre et son temps. Paris. 1893. 
Motley, J. L. Life and death of John of Barneveldt. 2 vols. The 

Hague. 1874. 
OosTKAMP, J. A. Leven en daden van Marten Harpzn. Tromp en Jacob 

van Wassenaar van Obdam. Deventer. 1825. 
ScHOTEL, G. D. J. Anna Maria van Schuurman. 's Hertogenbosch. 

1853- 

Simons, P. Johan De Witt en zijn tijd. 3 vols. Amsterdam. 1832-48. 

Traill, H. D. William III. London. 1888. 

Trevor, A. Life and times of William III, 1650-1702. 2 vols. London. 

1835-6. 
Vloten, J. VAN. Tesselschade Roemers en hare vrienden, 1632-49. 
Ley den. 1652. 

{d) COLONIZATION, COMMERCE, VOYAGES 

Deventer, M. L. v. Geschiedenis der Nederlanders op Java. 2 vols. 

Haarlem. 1886-7. 
DijK, L. C. D. Nederland's vroegste betrekkingen met Borneo, den 

Solo Archipels, Cambodja, Siam en Cochin China. Amsterdam. 

1862. 
Edmundson, G. The Dutch Power in Brazil 

(i) The struggle for Bahia, 1624-7. (2) The First Conquests. 

(Eng. Hist. Rev. 261 — 1896; 676 — 1899.) 

The Dutch in Western Guiana. (Eng. Hist. Rev. 640 — 1901.) 

The Dutch on the Amazon and Negro in the 17th century. 

(Eng. Hist. Rev. 642 — 1903; i — 1904.) 

The Swedish Legend in Guiana. (Eng. Hist. Rev. 71 — 1899.) 



HuET, P. D. Memoires sur le commerce des Hollandais dans tous les 

etats et empires du monde. Amsterdam. 1717. 
JoNGE, J. K. J. DE. De Opkomst van het Nederl. gezag in Oost Indie. 

13 vols. The Hague. 1862-89. 
Kampen, N. G. VAN. Geschiedenis der Nederlanders buiten Europa. 

4 vols. Haarlem. 183 1-3. 
Lauts, G. Geschiedenis van de vestiging, uitbreiding...van de magt der 

Nederlanders in Indie. 7 vols. Groningen and Amsterdam. 

1853-66. 
Leupe, p. a. Reisen der Nederlanders naar het Zuidland of Nieuw 

Holland in de 17® e 18^ eeuw. Amsterdam. 1868. 
LuzAC, E. Holland's Rijkdom, behoudende den oorsprong van der 

koophandel en de magt van dezer Staat. 4 vols. Leyden. 1781. 
Netscher, p. M. Les Hollandais au Bresil. The Hague. 1853. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 439 

Netscher, p. M. Geschiedenis van de Kolonien Essequibo, Demerary 
en Berbice van de vestiging der Nederlanders tot op onzen tijd. 
The Hague. 1888. 

Rees, O. van. Geschiedenis der Nederl. Volkplantingen in Noord 

America. Tiel. 1855. 
Geschiedenis der koloniale poHtiek. Utrecht. 1868. 

Valentijn, F. Oud- en Nieuw-Oost-Indien, vervatt. eene verhandehnge 
V. Nederlands mogentheyd in die gewesten, also eene verhandehnge 
over...Kaap der Goede Hoop. 5 vols. Dort. 1724. 

(e) LITERATURE, CULTURE, FINE ARTS 

Brink, J. TEN. Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Letterkunde. Amster- 
dam. 1897. 
BusKEN HuET, C. Het land van Rembrandt. Studien over de Noord 

Nederlandsche beschaving in de xvii^ eeuw. 5 vols. Haarlem. 

1890. 
CoLLOT d'Escury, H. Holland's roem in kunsten en wetenschappen. 

10 vols. The Hague. 1824-44. 
Edmundson, G. Milton and Vondel. London. 1885. 
Haar, B. ter. Holland's bloei in schoone kunsten en wetenschappen by 

het sluiten van de Munstersche vrede. Leyden. 1849. 
Harting, p. Leven en Werken van Christiaan Huyghens. Amsterdam. 

1868. 
Havard, Henri. L'art et les artistes hollandais. Paris. 1879. 
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dam. 1874. 
Jonckbloet, W. J. A. Geschiedenis des Nederlandsche Letterkunde 

in de zeventiende eeuw. 2 vols. Groningen. 1881. 
Koning, J. Geschiedenis van het Slot te Muiden en Hooft's leven op 

hetselve. Amsterdam. 1827. 
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Nederland. Amsterdam. 1893-4. 
MuLLER, Lucian. Gcschichte der klassischen Philologiein denNieder- 

landen. Leipzig. 1869. 
SiEGENBEEK, M. Geschiedfenis van der Leidsche Hooge School. Leyden. 

1829-32. 
Straeten, E. VAN DER. La musique aux Pays-Bas avant le 19® siecle. 

Brussels. 1872. 
Vloten, J. VAN. Het Nederlandsche Kluctspel van de 14^ tot de 18® 

eeuw. 3 vols. Haarlem. 1878-80. 
Vondel, J. van den. Werken in verband gebracht met zijn leven en 

voorzien van verklaring en aanteekeningen d. J. v. Lennep. 12 vols. 

Amsterdam . 185 5-68 . 
WiLLEMS, A. Les Elzevier. Histoire et annales typographiques. The 

Hague. 1880. 
WiTSEN Geysbeek, P. G. Biographisch, anthologisch, en critisch woor- 

denboek der Nederlandsche dieters. 6vols. Amsterdam. 1821-7. 
Wybrants, C. E. Het Amsterdamsch tooneel. Amsterdam. 1875. 



440 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

(/) RELIGIOUS AND ECCLESIASTICAL 

Brandt, G. Historic der reformatie en andere kerkelijke geschieden- 

nissen in en omtrent de Nederlanden tot 1600. 4 vols. Amsterdam. 

I 677-1704. 
Chatelain, N. Histoire du Synode de Dordrecht des 1609 a 16 19. 

Amsterdam . 1 84 1 . 
Fruin, R. De wederopluiking van het Katholicisme in Noord-Neder- 

land omtrent den aanvang der 17® eeuw. Amsterdam. 1894. 
Knuttel, W. p. C. De toestand der Nederl. Katholieken ten tijde der 

Republiek. 2 vols. The Hague. 1892-4. 
MoNTANUS, A. Kerkelijke historic van Nederland. Amsterdam. 1675. 
MoNTijN, G. G. Geschiedenis der Hervorming in de Nederlanden. 

5 vols. Arnhem. 1858-64. 
NuijENS, W. J. F. Geschiedenis der kerkelijke en politieke geschillen 

in de Republiek der Zeven Vereen. Prov., 1598-1625. 2 vols. 

Amsterdam. 1886. 
Regenborg, J. Historic der Remonstranten. 2 vols. Amsterdam. 1774. 
Veen, A. J. v. d. Remonstranten en Contra- Remonstranten. 2 vols. 

Sneek. 1858. 

XVIIlTH CENTURY 

(a) ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES AND COLLECTIONS 
OF DOCUMENTS 

Actes, Memoircs et autrcs pieces authentiques conccrnant la paix 

d' Utrecht. 6 vols. Utrecht. 17 14-15. 
BowDLER, T. Letters written in Holland in the months of September 

and October, 1787, to which is added a Collection of letters and 

other papers relating to the journey of the Princess of Orange on 

June 29, 1787. London. 1788. 
Brieven en negotiaticn van L. L. van de Spiegel. Amsterdam. 1803. 
Brieven van Prins Willem V aan Baron v. Leyndcn. The Hague. 1893 . 
De Jonge, J. K. J. Documents politiques ct diplomatiques sur les 

revolutions de 1787 et 1795 dans la republiquc des Provinces Unies. 

(Ned. Rijk's Archief.) The Hague. 1859. 
Lettres et memoircs sur la conduite de la prescnte guerre ct sur les 

negociations de paix, jusqu'a la fin des conferences de Gecrtruiden- 

bergh. 2 vols. The Hague. 1711-12. 
LiNGUET, S. N. H. Lettres au Comte de Trauttmansdorf, ministre 

plenipotentiairc par Empcreur [Joseph II] aux Pays-Bas, 1788 et 

1789. Brussels. 1790. 
Maguette, F. Joseph II et la liberte de I'Escaut. Memoires couronnes 

et autres Memoires publics par I'Academie Royalc des Sciences 

de Bclgiquc. Vol. xv. Brussels. 1898. 
Malmcsbury, Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, Earl of. 

4 vols. London. 1844. 
Mandrillon, J. H. Memoires pour servir a I'histoirc de la Revolution 

des Provinces Unies en 1787. Paris. 1791. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 441 

Marlborough, Despatches of John, Duke of. Ed. Sir G. Murray. 5 vols. 

London. 1845. 
ToRCY, Marquis de. Memoires pour servir a I'histoire des negociations 

depuis le traite de Rijswijck jusqu'a la paix d 'Utrecht. Paris. 

1850. 
Vreede, C. G. Correspondance diplomatique et miUtaire du due de 

Marlborough, du grand-pensionaris Heinsius, et du tresorier- 

general J. Hop. Amsterdam. 1850. 

(b) HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 

BosscHE, E. VAN DER. Le traite de la Barriere. Bruges. 1880. 

CoLENBRANDER, H. T. De Patriotcn Tijd, 1776-87. 3 vols. The 

Hague. 1897-99. 
De Bataafsche Republiek. The Hague. 1908. 

Ellis, George. History of the late Revolution in the Dutch Republic. 
London. 1789. 

History of the internal affairs of the United Provinces, from the year 
1780 to the commencement of hostilities in June, 1787. London. 
1787. 

JoRissEN, T. De Patriotten te Amsterdam in 1791. Amsterdam. 1793. 

Kane, Richard. Campaigns of King William and of the Duke of Marl- 
borough. 2nd ed. London. 1747. 

Kluit, a. Historic der HoUandsche Staatsregering tot 1795. 5 vols. 
Amsterdam . 1 802-5 . 

Legrand, L. La revolution fran9aise en HoUande ; la republique batave. 
Paris. 1894. 

Loon, H. W. v. The Fall of the Dutch Republic. London. 1913. 

Meulen, a. J. v. D. Studies over de ministrie van Van de Spiegel. Ley- 
den. 1906. 

Ondaatje, Q. Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis der omwenteling van 1787. 
Dunkirk. 1791. 

ScHiMMELPENNiCK, RuTGER. J. S. cu ccnige gcbeurtcnissen van zijn tijd. 
Amsterdam. 1845. 

Verenet, G. Pierre le Grand en Hollande, 1697 et 1717. Utrecht. 1865. 

Weber, O. Die Quadrupel-AUianz vom Jahre 171 8. Vienna. 1887. 

Wreede, G. W. Geschiedenis der diplomatic van de bataafsche repub- 
liek. 3 vols. Utrecht. 1863. 

(c) BIOGRAPHICAL 

Arneth, a., Ritter von. Prinz Eugen van Savoyen. 3 vols. Vienna. 

1856. 
Kollewijn, B. Bilderdijk. 2 vols. Amsterdam. 1891. 
Mendels, M. H. W. Daendels, 1762-1818. 2 vols. The Hague. 1890. 
NijHOFF, I. A. De Hertog van Brunswijk. The Hague. 1849. 
ScHENK, W. G. F. Wilhelm der Funfte. Stuttgart. 1884. 
SiLLEM, J. A. Gogel. Amsterdam. 1864. 
Dirk van Hogendorp. Amsterdam. 1890. 



442 bibliography 

xixth century and after 

(a) ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES AND COLLECTIONS 
OF DOCUMENTS 

Barthels, A. Documents historiques sur la Revolution beige. Brussels. 

1836. 

Bonaparte, Louis (Comte de St Leu). Documents historiques et 
reflexions sur le gouvernement de la HoUande. 3 vols. London. 
1820. 

Falck,A.R. Brieven 1796-1845 metlevensberigtd.O.W.HoraSiccama. 
The Hague, i860. 

Amtsbrieven, 1802-42. The Hague. 1878. 

Handelingen van de Staten General (i^ en 2® Kamer), 1815-47. 51 vols. 
The Hague. 1863-97. 

Histoire parlementaire du traite de paix du 19 Avril, 1839, c^^tre la 
Belgique et la HoUande, contenant tous les discours. 2 vols. 
Brussels. 1839. 

Krayenhoff, C. R. T. Bijdragen tot de vaderlandsche geschiedenis van 
de belangrijke jaren 1809-10. Nimwegen. 1844. 

LiPMAN, S. P. Nederlandsch constitutioneel archief van alle koninklijke 
aanspraken en parlementaire addressen, 1813-63. 2 vols. Amster- 
dam. 1846-64. 

RocQUAis, F. Napoleon et le roi Louis d'apres les documents con- 
serves aux archives nationales. Paris. 1875. 

Soelen, Verstolk VAN. Recueil de pieces diplomatiques relatives aux 
affaires de la HoUande et de la Belgique, 1830-2. 3 vols. The 
Hague. 1 83 1-3. 

Thorbecke, J. R. Brieven aan Groen v. Prinsterer, 1830-2. Amster- 
dam. 1873. 

Parlementaire redevoeringen. 6 vols. Deventer. 1856-70. 

(b) HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 

Beaufort, W. H. de. De eerste regierings jaren van Koning Willem I. 

Amsterdam. 1886. 
Bosch Kemper, J. de. Staatkundige geschiedenis van Nederland na 

1830. 5 vols. Amsterdam. 1873-82. 
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jusqu'en 1830. 3 vols. Brussels. 1842. 
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Keppers, G. L. De regeering van Koning Willem HI. Groningen. 
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Het Regentschap van Koningin Emma. The Hague. 1895. 

Lastdrager, a. J. Nieuwste geschiedenis v. Nederland in jaarlijksche 

overzigten (1815-30). 9 vols. Amsterdam. 1839-48. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 443 

NoTHOMB, Baron J. B. Essai historique et politique sur la revolution 

beige. 3 vols. 4th ed. Brussels. 1876. 
NuYENS, W. J. F. Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Volk van 181 5 

tot op onze dagen. 4 vols. Amsterdam. 1883-6. 
Rengers, W. J. VAN Walderen. Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis 

van Nederland sedert 1849. 2 vols. The Hague. 1889. 
WiTKAMP EN Craandijk. Vereeniging en Scheiding. Geschiedenis van 

Noord-Nederland en Belgie van 1813-80. Doesburgh. 1881. 
Wolf, N. H. De regeering van Koningin Wilhelmina. Rotterdam. 

1901. 
Wupperman, W. E. a. Geschiedenis van den Tiendagschen Veldtocht. 

Amsterdam. 1880. 

(c) BIOGRAPHICAL 

Abbink, J. J. Leven van Koning Willem II. Amsterdam. 1849. 
Arnoldi, J. van. Leven en Karakter- Schets van Koning Willem I. 

Zutphen. 1818. 
Bos, F. de. Prins Frederik der Nederlanden. 4 vols. Schiedam. 1857-99. 
BosscHA, J. Het leven van Willem II, koning der Nederlanden, 1793- 

1849. Amsterdam. 1852. 
Brink, J. TEN. Prins Frederik der Nederlanden. The Hague. 1881. 
Deschamps, P. La reine Wilhelmina. Paris. 1901. 
Mees Az, G. Levenschets van G. K. Hogendorp. Amsterdam. 1864. 
PiERSON, Allard. Onze tijdgenooten. Amsterdam. 1896. 
Thijm, J. A. Alberdingk, door A. J. Amsterdam. 1893. 
Vos, A. J.DE. Groen van Prinsterer en zijn tijd. Dordrecht. 1886. 

(d) COLONIAL 

Boys, H. Scott. Some notes on Java and its administration by the Dutch. 

Allahabad. 1892. 
Day, C. The policy and administration of the Dutch in Java. New York. 

1904. 
Perselaer, M. T. H. Nederlandsche Indie. 4 vols. Leyden. 1891-3, 
PiERSON, N. G. Koloniale Politick. Amsterdam. 1877. 
Staatsblad voor Nederl. Indie 1816-80. 46 vols. The Hague and 

Batavia. 1839-81. 
Verslag van het beheer en der staat der Nederlandsche bezittingen in 

Oost- en West-Indie en ter kust van Guinea. 44 vols. The Hague. 

1840-96. 

(e) GENERAL 

BoissEVAiN, J. H. G. De Limburgsche Questie. Tiel. 1848. 

Brink, J. ten. Geschiedenis der Noord-Nederlandsche letteren in de 

xix^ eeuw. 
Eendegeest, G. van. Over de droogmaking van het Haarlemmer meer. 

Vol. I. Leyden. 1842. Vol. 11. The Hague. 1853. Vol. iii. 

Amsterdam, i860. 
Fruin, J. A. De Nederlandsche Wetboeken tot 1876. Utrecht. 1881. 



444 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Heringa, DrA. Free Trade and Protection in Holland. London. 19 14. 

LoHMAN, A. F. DE Savornin. Onze Constitutie. Utrecht. 1907. 

Marius, G. Hermine. Dutch painting in the 19th century. (Trans, by 
De Mattos.) London. 1908. 

NiPPOLD, F. Die Romische Katholische Kirche im Konigreich der 
Niederlande. Leipzig. 1877. 

Painting, Modern Dutch. Edinburgh Review. July, 1909. 

Robertson Scott, J. W. War-time and Peace in Holland. London. 
1914. 

Root, E. W. de. Geschiedenis van den Nederlandsche Handel. Amster- 
dam. 1856. 

Seckenga, F. W. Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Belastingen sedert 
1810. The Hague. 1883. 

Verschave, p. La HoUande politique. The Hague. 19 10. 







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INDEX 



Aaachen, 13, 19 

Aalst, 64 

Abbatage, 382, 385 f. 

Abel Tasman river, 164 

Abjuration, Act of (1581), 76 

Academie des Sciences (Paris), 199 

Achin, 419 ff., 427 

Adair, Sir Robert, 399 

Admiralty colleges, 87, 117 f., 214, 

236 f., 315, 317, 345 
Adolf, Duke of Gelderland, 8 ff. 
Adolphus, Duke of Nassau-Weilburg, 

429 
Adolphus of Nassau, 45 
Advocate, Land's, or Council-Pen- 
sionary, powers and functions of, 

ii6f. 
Aerschot, Duke of, 65, 67, 69 
Aerssens, Comelis van, lord of Som- 

melsdijk, 203 
Aerssens, Francis van, lord of Som- 

melsdijk, 127, 131, 137, 142 f., 148, 

152 f., 203 
Agincourt, battle of, 2 
Agriculture, Horticulture and Forestry, 

School of, 43 1 
Aine, 294 
Aix-la-Chapelle, treaty of (1668), 245, 

2481(1748), 313 f., 317 
Alberoni, Cardinal, 302 
Albert, Cardinal Archduke, 94, 96 f., 

100 ff., 106, 140 
Albert of Saxe-Meissen, Duke, stad- 

holder, 13 f. 
Albertina Agnes, wife of William 

Frederick, 1.53, 285 
Albuquerque, Duarte de, 171, 173 
Albuquerque, Matthias de, 171 ff., 174 
Alcabala, 48 
Aldenhoven, 341 
Alexander I, Tsar of Russia, 366, 401, 

406 
Alexander, Prince, son of William III, 

421 
Alexander of Parma, see Farnese 
Algemeene Nederlandsche Werklieden 

Verbond, 425 
Algerian pirates, 317 
Algiers, Dey of, 317 
Alkmaar, 56, 112, 184, 207 
All Saints, Bay of (Bahia de todos os 

Santos), 167, 175 
Alliance, treaties of, 95 f., 283, 296, 

302, 345 ff., 354 



Almanza, 291 

Almonde, Philip van, 289 

Alsace, 309 

Alva, Duke of, 34, 42-49, 51-54, 56, 

67, 75, 186 
Amalia von Solms, Countess, 141, 154, 

203, 210, 213, 242 
Amazon river, 177 f. 
Amboina, 105, 124 f., 160, 162 f., 220 
Amboise, 15 

American Revolution, 332 
Amerongen, 267 
Amersfoort, 144, 299, 333 
Amiens, peace of (1802), 354 
Amortisatie-Syndikaat, the, 382 
Amstel, the, 191, 351 
Amstelland, 357 
Amsterdam, ^amw ; University of, 188, 

431 
Amsterdam, ship, 169 
Anabaptists, 22 f. 
Anastro, Caspar, 77 
Anglo-Prussian alliance, 338 
Anjou, Duke of, 70, 72, 74, 76-79, 83 
Anna Paulo vna, 401, 406 
Anne, Princess Royal, wife of William 

IV, 304, 316-319 
Anne, Queen, 271, 273, 286 
Anne de Beaujeu, regent, 15 
Anne of Austria, wife of Philip II, 49 
Anne of Austria, regent of France, 154, 

280 
Anne of Brittany, 15 
Anne of Egmont, 30 
Anne of Saxony, wife of William, 

Prince of Orange, 33, 49 f., 61 
Anthony, Duke of Brabant, husband 

of Duchess Elizabeth of Gorlitz, 2 
Anthonyof Burgundy, younger brother 

of John the Fearless, 2 
Antonio Vaz, island, 172 
Antwerp, passim) treaty concluded at 

(1715), 297 
Appeldoorn canal, the, 379 
"April Movement," the, 413 f. 
Archangel, 98, 121, 275 
Architofsky, Colonel, 176 
Aremberg, Count of, stadholder, 40, 

45 
Arlington, Lord, 242, 244 
Armada, 86, 89, 92 
Armed Neutrality, League of, 325, 329 
Armenteros (Argenteros) , secretary of 

the Duchess of Parma, 34 f. 



446 



INDEX 



Arminius (Jacob Harmenz), 128, 188 

Amhem, 113 

Arnhem cape, 164 

Arnold of Egmont, Duke, 7 

Arras, diocese of, 32 f.; Union of 

(1579), 71 f. 
Arreyal de Bom Jesus , 172, 174 
Artois, I, 5, 9, 21, 29, 45, 71, 232, 292 
Ath, 290, 310 
Auchmuty, General, 364 
Augereau, General, 353 
Augsburg, 22, 49 
Augustus of Saxony, 303 
Australia, 164 
Austrian Netherlands, insurrection in, 

338 
Austrian Succession War, 305, 306-315 
Austruweel, 42 
Axel, 311 

Ayscue, Vice- Admiral, 214, 216 f., 240 
Aysma, agent of Leicester, 89 

Backhuizen, Ludolf , 200 

Baden, 8, 297 

Bahia, 167, 169 f., 173, 175 

Bakhuysen, artist, 432 

Balance of power in Europe, 266, 283 f., 

294, 303 
Baltic trade, 6, 25, 98, 120, 180, 182, 

216, 229, 275, 301, 329 
Banckers, Vice-Admiral, 252 
Banda islands, 124 f., 160, 162 f. 
Baner, 182 

Bank of the Netherlands, 379 
Banking houses, 320 
Bantam, 124, 161, 275 
Barendtsz, William, 99 
Barlaeus, Caspar, 188, 197 
Barlaymont, Baron de, 29, 31, 37 f-, 44 
Barra, the, 171 f. 
Barrier treaties, 293, 296 f., 318 
Bart, Jean, 264 
Barthels, 387, 391 
Basel, 8, 368 

Batavia, Java, 161, 164 f., 275, 364 
Batavian legion, 341 f. 
Batavian Republic, the, 344-356 
Bavaria, 283, 288, 307 f., 331 
Beachy Head, 278 
Beauharnais, Eugene, 398 
Beerenbronck, Ruys de, 428 
"Beggars of the Sea," 50 f., 56, 58 ff., 

82 
Belgian Limburg, 400 
Belgian Netherlands, 272, 331, 336 
Belgian Revolution, 387, 389-404 
Belgium, 310, 314, 338, 340, 369, 371 ff., 

389, etc.; union of, with Holland, 

376-388 
Bender Abbas, 275 



Bengal, 328 

Bentinck, Count William, 313, 316, 

319 
Bentinck, William, Earl of Portland, 

263, 269, 272, 284 
Berbice, 276, 320, 328, 347, 376 
Berbice river, 177 
Berchem, Nicolas, 200 
Beresina, the, 364 
Bergen, 237 f., 353 
Bergen-op-Zoom, 140, 312 
Berghen, Marquis of, 31, 36, 38 
Berkeley, Vice-Admiral, 240 
Berlin, 308, 321, 341, 371, 406; Decree 

of (1806), 358 
Bernard of Saxe- Weimar, 141 
Berwick, 291 
Bethune, 13, 294 

Beukelsz, William, of Biervliet, 6, 24 
Beverweert, 233 f., 244 
Biberibi river, 171 
Bicker, Andries, 207 f., 226 
Bicker, Cornells, 207 f,, 226 
Bicker, Wendela, 225, 247 
Bilderdijk, 358, 407 
Bilders, artist, 432 
Binnenhof, the (at the Hague), 107, 

134 f., 210, 333, 336, 348 
Bishoprics, creation of, 31 f. 
Bismarck, 417 
Blaeu, Willem Jansz, 201 
Blake, naval commander, 215-219 
Bleiswijk, council-pensionary, 332, 337 
Blenheim, 288 
Blok, DrP. J., 431 
Blood, Council of, 43, 47, 49 
Blood-placards, 23, 38 f. 
"Blossoming Eglantine," 191, 201 
Bliicher, 371 
Boer War, 426 
Boers, revolt of the, 420 
Bogerman of Leeuwarden, Johannes, 

136 f., 188 
Bohemia, 126, 307, 361 
Bois-le-Duc, 32, 143 f. 
Boisot, commanding the Sea Beggars, 

58 ff. 
Bol, Ferdinand, 200 
Bolduc la pucelle, 144 
Bolingbroke, Viscount, see St John 
Bologna, 20 
Bonn, 259, 288 
Bontekoe, Willem, 164 
Bor, chronicler, 195 
Borgesius, Catholic minister, 423, 426 
Borinage, the, 393 
Borkelo, lordship of, 238 
Borneo, 124, 163 
Borselen, Wolferd van, lord of Veere, 

stadholder, lo 



INDEX 



447 



Bosboom, artist, 432 

Bosboom-Toussaint, Mevrouw, 432 

Bosse, P. P. van, 417 

Bossu, stadholder, 52, 55 f. 

Both, Andreas, 200 

Both, Jan, 200 

Both, Pieter, governor-general, 161, 

164 
Bouchain, 294, 296 
Bouches de Issel, 361 
Bouches de I'Escaut, 361 
Bouches de la Meuse, 361 
Bouches du Rhin, 361 
Boudaen, Admiral, 317 
Boufflers, Marshal, 279, 287, 292 
Bouillon, duchy of, 374 
Bourges, 90 

Boyne, battle of the, 278 
Brabant, passim 
Brandenburg, 108, 262, 264 ff., 268, 

272, 296 
Brandenburg, Elector of, 119 f., 210, 

230, 238 f., 270 
Brandt, biographer, 196 
Brantsen, envoy, 342 

Brazil, 99, 157 f., 160, 166, 168 ff., 

175 ff., 229, 276 
"Bread and Cheese Folk," 13 
Breda, 42, 61, 73, 92, 140, 150, 156, 

231, 242 ff., 247, 341, 413 ; congress 
of, 311 f.; treaty of, 243, 245, 248, 
261 

Brederode, field-marshal, 210, 227, 238 
Brederode, Frans van, 12 
Brederode, Henry, Count of, 33, 36- 

39, 42 
Brederode, Lancelot, 55 
Brederoo, Gerbrand Adriansz, 192, 

197 
Breedevoort, 95 
Brest, 278, 347 
Brill, 51 f., 62, 84, 112, 123 
Brink, Bakhuizen van der, 408 
Brittany, 15 

Broeck, Pieter van der, 161 
Broglie, Maurice de. Bishop of Ghent, 

377, 380, 384 
Bromsebro, treaty of, 183 
Bronkhorst, Dirk van, 60 
Broodhuis, the (at Brussels), 46 
Broukere, Charles de, 385 
Brouwer, Adrian, 200 
Brouwershaven, 12 
Browne, Scottish official, 125 
Bruges, 6 f., 11,13,16,23 f.,7o,73,77> 

79, 82, 97, 153, 290 ff., 310 
Brugghen, J. J. L. van der, 414 f. 
Brun, Spanish envoy, 157 
Brune, General, 353 
Brunswick, 121, 272, 354 



Brunswick, Charles, Duke of, 335 f. 
Brunswick- Liineburg, 239 
Brunswick- Wolf enbiittel, Lewis Ernest, 

Duke of, 315, 316-320, 321, 328 
Brussels, passim; congress of, 396 f.; 

Union of, 67, 69 
Buat, the lord of, 242 
Bubble companies, 301 
Buchhorn, 354 
Bulbs, trade in, 184 
Burchgrave, Daniel de, 86 
Buren, Count of, 30 
Burgos, 15, 17 

Burgundian Netherlands, i-ii 
Burgundy, 1,9, 12, 30, 42 
Burnet, Bishop, 271 
Bushey Park, 284 

Buys, Paul, Advocate, 50, 83 f., 87, 90 
Buys, pensionary, 290, 294 
Bylandt, Count, Lieut- General, 387, 

390 f. 

Cabelliau, Abrahain, 121 

Cabo Corso, 235 

Cadiz, 275, 289 

Cadsand, 254, 311 

Caerden, Paulus van, 106 

Calais, 16, 28, 94, 216 

Callantroog, 352 

Callenberg, 289 

Calmar, 182 

Calvin, Calvinism, Calvinists, 22, 38 ff., 

42, 49 f., 128, 407, 413 
Cambray, 20; League of, 18; peace 

congress at (1508), 18 
Camisaders, 54 
Camperdown, 347, 350 
Canal of Holland, 416 
Canals, 379, 420, 430 
Canary islands, 171 
Capadose, Calvinistic leader, 407 
Cape Breton, 313 
Cape colony, 165, 376 
Cape of Good Hope, 98, 100, 166, 275, 

328, 346, 376 
Capibaribi river, 171 
Carib tribes, 178 
Caribbean sea, 170 

Carleton, Sir Dudley, 1 23 , 1 30, 143 , 1 63 
Carnot, 342 

Caroline, Princess, regent, 319 f. 
Caroline, Queen, 316 
Carolingian empire, tripartite division 

of, I 
Caron, Francis, 164 
Caron cape, 164 
Carpentaria, Gulf of, 163 f. 
Carpentier, Pieter, 163 f. 
Carrying- trade, 6, 25, 85, 97 f., 159, 

214, 218, 274 f., 298, 319, 379 



448 



INDEX 



Cartagena, 42 

Cartesian system, the, 190 

Castel-Rodrigo, Spanish governor, 244 

Castlereagh, Lord, 366^ 368 f., 376 

Gastric um, 353 

Castro, Alphonso de, 105 

Catalonia, 291 

Cateau-Cambresis, treaty of (1559), 28, 

30 
Catherine II, Empress, 325, 329 
Catholic episcopate, establishment of, 

412 f. 
Catholique, the, 387, 391 
Cats, Jacob, council-pensionary, 148, 

192, 194, 197, 205, 211, 214; Hof- 

wijck, Cluijszuerck, Voorhout and 

Zeestraet of, 194 
Cautionary towns, 84, 96, 104, 121, 

123 
Ceylon, 105, 124, 165, 229, 275, 328, 

346, 354 
Chamber of Accounts, college of, 345, 

368 
Chambers of Rhetoric, 201 
Champagney, governor of Antwerp, 66 
Charleroi, 245, 258, 278, 310 
Charles I of England, 142 f., 152, 154 f., 

163, 203 f., 215, 262 
Charles II of England, 203 f., 208, 212, 

231-234, 236, 238, 242, 244 f., 248 f., 

252 ff., 261-266 
Charles II of Spain, 280 ff. 
Charles V, Emperor, 16-23, 25, 27-30, 

32, 67, 191, 196, 281, 294 
Charles V of France, 4 
Charles VI, Emperor, 295, 297, 306 
Charles VII (Charles Albert, Elector of 

Bavaria), Emperor, 282, 290, 306 f., 

309 
Charles VIII of France, 15 
Charles IX of France, 5 1 , 57 
Charles IX of Sweden, 121 
Charles X Gustavus of Sweden, 141, 

229 ff. 
Charles X of France, 389 
Charles XII of Sweden, 291, 301 
Charles, Archduke, 282, 286, 289 ff., 

293 f. 
Charles Christian, Prince of Nassau- 

Weilburg, 319 
Charles Edward, the young Pretender, 

310 
Charles of Egmont (Gelderland), 14, 

18 f., 21 
Charles of Lorraine, 310 f. 
Charles the Bold {le Temeraire), 3 ff., 

7-10 
Charlotte, Princess of England, 366, 

398, 406 
Charlotte de Bourbon, 61, 77 



Chamacd, French ambassador, 149 

Chass^, General, 395, 402 

Chatham, 248 

Chatham, Lord, 359 

Chatillon, conference of (18 14), 368 

Chatillon, French commander, 149 

Chatillon, French envoy, 135 

Chaumont, 368 

Cheribon, 275 

Chesapeake bay, 166 

Chesterfield, Lord, 303 

China, 105, 124 

Christian IV of Denmark, 120 f., 180- 

183 

" Christian Coalition," 427 

Christianopel, treaty of, 183 

Christina of Sweden, 229 

Christopher, Duke, son of the Elector 
Palatine, 59 

Church Association Act, 414 

Churchill, John, see Marlborough 

Clancarty, Lord, 369, 387 

Clarendon, 244 

Claude, sister of Philibert, Prince of 
Orange- Chalons, 30 

Clement VII, Pope, 20 

Cleves, 120 

Cloppenburch, 201 

Coburg, Austrian commander, 341 f. 

Coccaeus, 188 

Cochon, member of National Conven- 
tion, 345 

Cockayne, Alderman, 125 

Cockerill, of Seraing machine factory, 
380 

Code Napoleon, the, 358, 362 

Cods of Holland, 14 

Coehoorn, 279 

Coelim, 275 

Coevorden, 93, 258 

Colberg Heath, 181 

Colbert, 249 

Colenbrander, Dr H. T., 388, 431 

Coligny, Admiral, 47, 53, 78 

Coligny (T^igny), Louise de, 78 f., 83, 

130, 135, 138 
Collegium. Phtlosophicum, 381, 383, 386 
Cologne, 8, 32, 192, 248 f., 252 f., 

258 f., 261, 272, 368 
Cologne, Archbishop of, 8 
Cologne, Elector-Archbishop of, 

Bishop of Liege, 249 
Colombo, 165 
Colonies, 177, 276, 328, 347, 358, 376, 

430, etc. 
Commercial and economic expansion, 

159-185 
Commissioned Councillors, college of, 

114. 345 
"Compromise," the, 37-40 



INDEX 



449 



" Concept of Harmony," 246, 248, 250 
Conde, 249, 262 
Conde, Princess of, 120 
Conperus, Louis, 432 
Constance, League of (1474), 8 
Constantine the Great, 193 
Constantinople, 121, 183 
Constitution, revision of the, 405-410 
Cojisulta, 29, 35 

Consuhation, Act of (1766), 321, 328 
Contarini, Tommaso, 121 
Continental system, 358, 362, 379 
Contra-Remonstrants, 129 ff., 133 f., 

137 
Contra-Remonstratie, 129 
Cook's strait, 164 
Coomheert, Dirk Volkertz, 191 
Copenhagen, 230 f. 
Coromandel, 165, 320 
Council of State, powers and functions 

of, no f. 
Council-pensionaries, powers and 

functions of, 116 f. 
Coursier des Pays Bos, the, 391 
Courtrai, 40, 245, 290, 309 
Crecy, battle of, i 
Cromwell, 163, 215, 218-224, 229, 234, 

236 
Cuba, 170 

Culemberg, Count of, 36 f., 44 
Cultivation-system, 415 f., 430, 432 
Cumberland, Duke of, 309, 311 f. 
Cura9oa, 276, 323, 327 
Cuyp, Albert, 200 

D'Affry, French ambassador, 317 ff. 
D'Allegne, Marquis, 290 
D'Alphonse, Baron, 361 
D'Argenson, French minister, 310 f. 
D'Avaux, French ambassador, 266, 

268, 272 
D'Avila, Sancho, 59, 66, 106 
D'Ellougue, 385 
D'Estrades, Count, 203, 208, 232 f., 

265 
D'Estrees, 252, 259, 278 
D'Hoogvoort, Baron Emmanuel, 391- 

395 
D'Hoogvoort, Baron Joseph, 393 
D'Oultremont, Countess Henriette, 

405 
D'Ursel, Duke, 378 
Daendels, General, 341 f,, 344 f., 347, 

350-353, 364 
Dale, Sir Thomas, 161 
Danube, the, 288 
Danzig, 25, 229 
David, son of Philip the Good and 

Bishop of Utrecht, 2, 14 
Davis' straits, 124 

E.H.H. 



De Beaufort, Admiral, 239, 241 

De Beauhamais, Hortense, 356, 360 f. 

De Berg, Count, 144 f. 

De Breze, French commander, 149 

De CeWes, prefet, 361, 381 

De Cocq, preacher, 407 

De Costa, Calvinistic leader, 407 

De Fenelon, French ambassador, 307, 

309 
De Foere, Abbe, 384 f. 
De Gerlache, Catholic leader, 385 
De Graeff, governor of St Eustatius, 323 
De Groot, pensionary, 1 31-13 6, 142 f. 
De Haan, pensionary, 131 
De Haas, artist, 432 
De Hembyze, Calvinist leader, 73 
De Heze, Baron, 65 
De Klundert, 341 
De la Vauguyon, Duke, 323 f. 
De la Ville, Abbe, 311 
De Laet, historian, 166 
De Larrey, Count, 310 
De Maulde, French ambassador, 341 
De Mean, Count, 380 f. 
(De Meester, ministry of, 427 
De Mist, leader of the federalists, 349 
De Nemours, Due, 397 f, 
De Neufville, 320 
De Neve, printer, 387 
De Perponcher, envoy, 365 
De Rosne, Seigneur, 94 
De Ryhove, Calvinist leader, 73 
De Standaart, prefet, 361 
De Verac, Count, 332 
De Vries, Admiral, 241 
De Vrij Temminck, 323 
De With, Cornehsz Witte, Vice-Ad- 
miral, 152, 182 f., 217, 219 f., 230 
De Witt, Cornells, Ruwaard, 226, 236, 

241, 243, 252-255 
De Witt, Jacob, 207, 209, 212, 226 
De Witt, John, 117, 198,212-224,225- 

235, 236-250, 252-257, 298, 301, 

317, 320,431 
Deane, commanding English fleet, 219 
Dedel, Belgian minister, 403 
"Defensive Confederacy," the, 331 
Deforgues, 353 
Dekker, Douwes, 415, 432; Max 

Havelaar of, 415, 432 
Delacroix, Charles, 350 
Delft, 62 f., 79 ff., 83, 99, 112, 157,159, 

183, 207, 277 
Delfware, 183 
DeLfziil, 92 

Demerara, 328, 347, 376 
Denain, 296 

Dendermonde, 41, 82, 290, 310 
Deputed-Estates, functions of, 114 
Descartes, Ren^, 190 

29 



450 



INDEX 



Dettingen, 308 

Deventer, 87 f., 92, 114, 226, 407 

Deventer, Gerard Prounick, 86, 89 

Devolution, law of, 233, 244 

Diamond industry, 183 

Dieden, Colonel, 144 

Dieren, 208 f. 

Diest, 149 

Dietz, 371, 374 

Dijkveld, 267, 271, 274, 280 

Dillenburg, town and principality of, 

42,44,47,49, 54, 371, 374 
Djapara, 161 
Doce river, 172 
Does, Jan van der, 60 
Doesburg, 87, 252 
Doggerbank, the, 329 
Dohna, Swedish ambassador, 244 f. 
Dokkum, 118 
Dolhain, the lord of, 50 
Dolman, Colonel, 218 
Donker, 385 

Donker-Curtius, 408 f., 411, 414 
Dordrecht, 51 f., 54, 98, 112, 135 ff-, 

178, 194, 207, 209 f., 212, 226, 247,' 

253 f., 274, 279, 335, 341 
Doreslaer, Dr, 203 f., 212 f. 
Dort, synod at, 87, 162, 184 f., 407 
Dorth, Colonel Jan van, lord of Horst, 

167 f. 
Dortmund, 354 
Douat, Merlin de, 345 
Douay, 21, 71, 294, 296 
Douw, Gerard, 200 
Dover, 215, 217 ; secret treaty of, 248 f. 
Downing, George, 234, 249 
Downs, battle of the, 151 f., 175, 212, 

215, 217 
Drake, 175 

Drebbel, Cornelius, 199 
Drente, 5,21,73,93,96, 115, 138,153, 

238, 251, 304, 354, 357, 367 
Du Chattel, artist, 432 
Ducp^tiaux, 394 
Dudley, Robert, Earl of Leicester, 77, 

84-91, 95, 97 f-, no, 115, 117, 432 
Duiveland, 62, 359 
Dumonceau, General, 347 
Dumouriez, 340 f. 
Duncan, Admiral, 347, 352 
Dungeness, 217 f. 
Dunkirk, 82, 100 ff., 145, 149, 151 f., 

171, 228, 232, 240, 264, 292, 296 
Diiren, 368 
Dutch Brabant, 312 
Dutch Flanders, 156, 185, 311, 330 f., 

342, 345 f-, 397 
"Dutch mission," 412 
Dutch Republic, beginnings of the, 

82-109 



East Friesland, 357 

East India Company (Dutch), 105, 124, 

147, 155, 159-185, 233, 252, 261, 

275, 305, 339 f., 345 
East India Company (English), 159, 

233, 320 
East Indies, 98 ff., 106, 124, 143, 158, 

160 f., 229, 248, 275, 328, 346, 379, 

407, 415 f., 430 
Edam, 112, 207 
Education Act (1878), 424 
Educational affairs, 380, 391, 409, 414, 

420, 422, 424 f., 427, 431 
Edward I of England, 16 
Edward, Prince, of Bohemia, 213 
Effingham, 175 
Egmont, see Lamoral 
Elba, 371, 384 
Elbing, 229 
Elburg, 334 
Elizabeth, Queen of England, 50, 57, 

62, 70 f., 74, 77, 83-86, 88 f., 95 f., 

102, 122 f. 
Elizabeth of Bohemia, 141 
Elizabeth of Gorlitz, Duchess of 

Luxemburg, 2 
Elizabeth of Parma, 302 
Elsass, 8 

Elseviers, the, 201 
Elsinore, 230 
Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont, Princess, 

queen -regent, 421 
Emmanuel Philibert, Dulce of Savoy, 

regent, 27 f . 
Ems, the, 45 
Ems Occidental, 361 
Ems Oriental, 361 
Enghien, Duke of, 155 
English Muscovy Company, 121, 123, 

166 
Enkhuizen, 56, 89, 98, 112, 118, 159 
Ensohede, 96 

Episcopius, Simon, 136, 188 
Ermerius, 352 
Ernest Casimir of Nassau, stadholder, 

loi, 138, 146 
Ernest of Austria, Archduke, 93 f . 
Erp, Christina van, 196 
Essequibo river and colony, 177, 276, 

328, 347, 376 
Eternal Edict, 246 f., 253 
Eugene of Savoy, Prince, 287 f., 290- 

296 
"Evangelicals," 128 
Evertsen, Comelis, Admiral, 240 f., 261, 

278 
Evertsen, Jan, Vice- Admiral, 218, 220, 

237 
Exclusion, Act of (Acte van Secluste), 
222-225, 232 



INDEX 



451 



Exeter, 273 

Exhibition at Brussels, 389 f. 

Fadrique de Toledo, Don, 168 
Fagel, Caspar, council-pensionary, 246, 

255 f. 
Fagel, Francis, council-pensionary, 

260, 264, 267, 277, 303, 319, 365 
Falck, Captain of the National Guard, 

364 f., 369, 380, 396 
Famese, Alexander, Prince of Parma, 

70-74, 77-80, 82, 84 ff., 88 f., 92 f., 

192 
Federation, Act of (1576), 63 
Femern, 182 
Ferdinand I, 306 
Ferdinand, Cardinal Infante, 148 ff., 

153 
Ferdinand of Aragon, 14 ff., 18 f. 
Ferrara, 97 
Fiji archipelago, 164 
Fijnje, member of Executive Council, 

350 
Finance, Chamber of, 52, 86 
Finspong, 179 

Fisheries, 6, 16, 97, 122, 218, 430 
Fishing rights dispute, 16, 122-125, 

143, 166, 214 
Fivelingoo, 114 
Flanders, passim 
Flemish Belgium, 378 
Fleurus, 278, 342 
Fleury, Cardinal, 303, 307 
Flinck, Govaert, 200 
Florence, 195 

Floriszoon, Vice- Admiral, 218, 230 
Flushing, 28, 30, 51 f., 58, 77, 84 f., 

123, 331, 346, 357, 359, 428 
Flushing and Veere, marquisate of, 

113, 304 
Fokker, member of Executive Council, 

350 
Fontainebleau, 138; treaty of (1785), 

331 
Fontenoy, battle of, 310 
Formosa, 164 
Fort Zelandia, 164 
Forth, Firth of, 243 
" Forty- Fighters," 315 
Fox, 329 

France, treaty with (1482), 12 
Franche-Comte, i, 9, 30, 34, 245 
Franchise, reforms of the, 421-424 
Francis I, 19 f. 
Francis, Emperor, 368 
Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, 

306 
Franco- German War (1870), 417 
Franeker, University of, 188, 190 
Frankfort, 294 



Franklin, 325 

Frederick II the Great, of Prussia, 274, 

306 f., 321 
Frederick III, Emperor, 7 f,, 13 
Frederick III of Denmark, 218, 230 f. 
Frederick, Elector Palatine, King of 

Bohemia, 139, 142 
Frederick, Prince, second son of King 

William I, 375, 392, 394, 421 
Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, 

stadholder, 103 f., 116, 121, 130, 

138 f., 141-144, 146-150, 153-157, 

178, 181 f., 186, 192, 194, 199, 202, 

209, 232, 298 f., 312 
Frederick Henry bay, 165 
Frederick Henry cape, 165 
Frederick of Toledo, Don, 53, 55 f. 
Frederick William I of Prussia, 306 
Frederick William II of Prussia, 335, 

366 
Frederick William of Brandenburg (the 

Great Elector), 157 
Frederikshald, 301 
French annexation, 357-366 
" French Fury," 78 
French Revolution, 340 
Friendly or Tonga islands, 164 
Friesland, passim 
Frise, 361 
Friso, John William, of Nassau-Siegen , 

285, 299, 304 
Fruin, Robert, 431 
Fryscell, 182 
Fuchs, Paul, 270 
Fuentes, Count of, 93 f. 
Fulda, Bishopric of, 354 
Fundamental Assemblies, 351 
Fundamental Law, 366 f., 370, 372 f., 

375 f., 378, 380, 384 f., 391 f., 394, 

405, 412, 420 f., 429 f. 
Funen, 230 f. 
Furnes, 297 
Fiirstenberg, Cardinal Archbishop, 

272 

Gabbard, the, 219 

Galle, 165 

Ganges, the, 275 

Gecommitteerde-Raden, 114 

Gedeputeerde-Staten, 114 

Geer, Louis de, 178 ff., 181 f. 

Geertruidenberg, 14, 93, 293 f., 341 

Gelder, 88 

Gelderland, passim 

Gembloux, 70 

Gendebien, Alexandre de, 391 ff., 395 

Genlis, Huguenot leader, 53 

Gennep, 149 

Genoa, 42 

George II of England, 304, 307 f. 

29 — 2 



452 



INDEX 



George of Saxe-Meissen, 21 

Gerard, Balthazar, 80 

Gerard, Marshal, 402 

Gevangenpoort, the, 255 

Ghent, 6, 9, 11 ff., 16, 24, 28, 45 f., 
65 f., 69, 71, 73, 82, 97, 156, 264, 
290 ff., 310, 377, 379 f., 385, 391; 
Pacification of, 66 f., 71 f., 81, 94 

Gibraltar, 106, 289 

Gilds, 5 

Gilles, Jacob, 310 f. 

Goa, 106 

Goch, 149 

Godolphin, 286, 294 

Goeman-Borgesius, 424 

Goerce, 254 

Gogel, finance minister, 342, 349, 355, 

357 f- 

Golden Fleece, Order of the, 7 

Gomarus, Franciscus, 128, 188 

Gomez, Ruy, 49 

Gondomar, Count of, 123 

Gonzales de Cordova, Don, 146 

Gooiland, 195 

Gorkum, 112, 251, 335 

Gotheborg, 121 

Gouda, 99, 112, 129, 259, 335, 420; 
convention at (161 o), 129 

Goyen, Jan van, 200 

Graeff, Cornells de, 226, 234 

Graeff, Jacob van der, 253 

Grain, traffic in, 85 f. 

Grand Alliance (1689), 273 f., 281 f., 
286, 289, 291, 294 f. 

Granson, battle at, 8 

Granvelle, Anthony Perrenot de. Car- 
dinal, Bishop of Arras, Archbishop 
of Mechlin, 22, 28f., 31-35,49,75,80 

Grave, 102, 258, 262 

Grave, Admiral, 308 

Gravelines, 28, 70 

Great Assembly, the, 209-213 

Great Fire of London, 242 

Great Privilege, the, 9 f., 14 

Great Rebellion, the, 152 

Great War (1914), the, 428, 430 

Greenland, 123 

Grobendonc, governor of Hertogen- 
bosch, 144 

Groenloo, 95 

Groll, 104 

Grondwety 366 

Groningen,^a5«m; University of , 181, 

431 
Groot, Hofstede de, 407 
Groot, Pieter de, pensionary, 246, 

248 f., 252 ff. 
Groote Eylandt cape, 165 
Grotius, Hugo (Huig van Groot), 122, 

188 f.; Mare Liberum of, 122, 189 



Guadeloupe, 376 
" Gueux, les," 38 
Gueux de mer, 50 
Guiana, 99, 177 f., 276, 340, 376 
Guinea, 99, 234 f., 328, 418 
Gustavus Adolphus, 147, 178 ff., 229 
Guyon, Francis (Balthazar Gerard), 80 
Gymnasia, 431 

Haarlem, 55 f., 58, 60, 62, 74, 90, 112, 
131, 183 f., 207, 246, 314, 341, 357, 

413 
Haarlem lake, 55, 412 
Haasrecht, 335 
Habsburg rule in the Netherlands, 12- 

26 
Hadamar, 371, 374 
Haersolte, 226 f. 
Haga, Comelis, 121, 183 
Hagen, Steven van der, 105 
Hague, the, passim 
Hahn, leader of the moderates, 349 
Hainault, 2, 9, 21, 52, 65, 71, 228, 244, 

262 
Hals, Frans, 199 f. 
Hamburg, 25, 320 
Hanover, 272, 283, 286, 302 
Hanse League, Hanse towns, 6, 25, 

120 f. 
Harderwijk, University of, 188 
Harlingen, 118 

Harmensz, Jacob, see Arminius 
Harmignies, 53 f. 
Harris, Sir James (Lord Malmesbury), 

332, 335 ff. 

Harwich, 84 

Harwood, Colonel, 147 

Hattem, 334, 341 

Haverman, artist, 432 

Havre, commander, 66 

Heemskerk, Th., 427 

Heidelberg, 90, 119 

Heidelberg catechism, 128, 137 

Heiligerlee, 45 

Heim, Antony van der, council-pen- 
sionary, 303 f-> 309 ff- 

Hein, Piet, Vice-Admiral, 167, 169 ff. 

Heinsius, Antony, council-pensionary, 
277, 280, 282 f., 285 ff., 290 f., 294, 
300 

Heinsius, Daniel, 188 

Heinsius, Nicolas, 188 

Helder, the, 352, 367, 379 

Hellemans, Heleonore, 196 f. 

Heist, Bartolomaus van der, 199 f. 

Helvoetsluis, 273 

Hendrikszoon, Boudewyn, 168 f. 

Heneage, Lord, 85 

Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, 248 

Henrietta Maria, i54f. 



INDEX 



453 



Henry III of France, 62, 83 f., 92 
Henry IV of France (Henry of Navarre), 

92, 94 ff., 104, 109, 120, 122, 19s 
Henry VII of England, 16 f. 
Henry, stadholder of Luxemburg, 421 
Henry Casimir, stadholder, son of 
William Frederick, 238, 264, 266, 
268, 270, 277, 285 
Henry Casimir of Nassau, 146, 153 
Henry of Bavaria, Bishop of Utrecht, 21 
Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 

Prince, 426 
Henry of Nassau, brother of the Prince 

of Orange, 47, 59 
Henry of Nassau, friend and adviser 

of Charles V, 30 
Herbert, Admiral, 273 
Heresy, extirpation of, 23, 31 ff., 35 ff., 

39, 42 f., 67 
Herring fisheries, 6, 24, 254 
Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-duc), 32, 102, 
143-146, 150, 156, 171, 253, 315, 
328, 413 
Hesse, 272 
Hesse-Cassel, 283 
Het Loo, 333, 358 
Higher education, 380, 427, 431 
"High-Mightinesses," 112 
*' Historical Christians," 425, 427 
Hobbema, Meindert, 200 
Hochstadt, 288 
Hoeth, 352 

Hohenlo, Count of, 84 
Holland, passim ; incorporation of, with 
Zeeland in the Burgundian domi- 
nion, 2 ; union of, with Belgium, 376- 
388 
Holmes, Admiral, 234 f. 
Holstein, 181 
Honthorst, Gerard, 200 
Hooft, burgomaster of Amsterdam, 

323 
Hooft, Cornelis Pietersz, 195 
Hooft, party leader, 264, 266 
Hooft, Pieter Cornelisz, 194-197; 

Geerard van Velzen, Warenar and 

Baeto of, 195; Netherland Histories 

of, 196 
Hoogerbeets, pensionary, 131-136, 142 
Hoogh, Pieter van der, 200 
Hooghley, the, 320 
Hooghly on the Ganges, 275 
Hoogstraeten, Count of, 31, 33, 41 f., 

44 f-, 47 
Hook faction, 12 ff. 
Hook of Holland, 416 
Hoom, 56, 98, 112, 118, 159, 166 
Hoom, Count of, see Montmorency 
Hoorn, dowager Countess of, 45 
Hop, Jan, 285, 316 



Houtman, Cornells, 99 

Hudde, Johan, 267 

Hudson, Henry, 166 

Hugonet, the lord, 10 

Huguenot refugees, 269 f., 276 

Huis in't Bosch, the, 426 

Hulst, 92, 94, 153, 156 

Humbercourt, the lord, 10 

Hume, 323 

Hunsingoo, 114 

Huy, 67, 288, 310 

Huyghens, Christian, 198 f. 

Huyghens, Constantine, 192, 194, 196 f. 

India, 99, 317 

Indies, trade in the, 107 ff., 145, 147, 
155 ff-, 160, 165, 189, 275, 313, 336, 

339 

Infamy, Order of, 385 

Inquisition, 36-39, 49, 54, 128 

Isabel, Queen of Portugal, 15 f. 

Isabel Clara Eugenia, Infanta, Arch- 
duchess, 94, 96 f., 100, 140, 145-148 

Isabel of Castile, 14 ff., 19 

Isabel of Portugal, wife of Philip the 
Good, 7 

Isny, 354 

Israels, Joseph, 432 

Issel superieur, 361 

Ita, Pieter Adriansz, 170 

Itamarca, 173 

Jacatra, 161 

Jacoba, heiress of William VI of Hol- 
land, 2 
Jacobin clubs, 348 f. 
James I of England, 104, 121 ff., 125, 

139, 142, 162 f., 189, 212 
James II of England, Duke of York, 

203, 234, 236 f., 242, 252, 262 f., 

269-273, 283 
James III of England, son of James II 

so termed, 271, 283, 285 
Janssens, governor-general of Java, 364 
Japan, 124, 164 
Japara, 275 
Jamac, battle of, 47 
Jaureguy, Juan, 77, 79 f. 
Java, 99, 161 ff., 165, 328, 339, 347, 

363 f., 376, 379, 415 f-, 432 
Jeannin, President, 108 f. 
Jemappes, 340, 393 
Jemmingen, 45, 47 
Jever, 357 
Joachimi, 204, 212 
Joan Maurice of Nassau, 175 ff., 210, 

227, 238, 245, 251 
Joanna, Duchess of Brabant, 2 
Joao IV of Portugal, 176 
John II of France, i 



454 



INDEX 



John III, Count of Namur, 2 

John IV, son of Anthony of Burgundy 

and husband of Jacoba of Holland, 2 
John Casimir, 71 f. 
John de Marnix, lord of Thoulouse, 42 
John of Austria, Don, 64, 66-70 
John of Bavaria, husband of Duchess 

Elizabeth of Gorlitz, 2 
John of Leyden, 22 
John of Nassau, Count, stadholder, 

41 f-, 45, 59, 61, 72, 79, 83, 146, 285 
John the Fearless, i f. 
Jones, Paul, 325 

Joseph I, Emperor, 290, 294, 306 
Joseph II, Emperor, 330 f., 338 
Joseph Ferdinand, 281 f. 
Joubert, General, 350, 352 
Jourdan, 342 
Juan, Infante, son of Ferdinand and 

Isabel, 15 
Juan de Vargas, 44 f. 
Juana, Infanta, daughter of Ferdinand 

and Isabel and wife of Philip the 

Fair, 14 ff., 17 
Julian, French secret agent, 387 
Jiilich, fortress of, 120 
Jiilich and Cleves, Duke of, 119 
Jiilich- Cleves duchies, question con- 
cerning succession to, 119 f., 122 
Junius, 128 
Jutland, 181 

Kaiserwerth, 287 f. 

Kampen, 114, 335 

Kandy, 165 

Kantelaur, leader of the moderates, 349 

Kappeyne, Joannes, 420; Education 

Act of (1878), 422 
Katwijk, 220, 358 
Kempenaer, 408, 411 
Kemper, 365 f. 
Kennemerland, 13 
Kentish Knock, 217 
Keppel, Earl of Albemarle, 284 
Kerkoven, Jan van der, lord of Heen- 

vliet, 152 
Kijkduin, 259 
Kitzingen, 179 
Klein- Schnellendorf, convention of, 

307 

Knocke, 297, 309 

Knodsenburg, 92 

Koen, Jan Pieterzoon, governor-gene- 
ral, 124, 161 ff., 164 

Kohler, General, 419 

Kolkmar, Dr, 428 

Koning, Salomon, 200 

Koningh, Pieter de, 200 

Koopman, Rear- Admiral, 402 

Korvey, abbey of, 354 



Kragenhoff, Minister of War, 358 
Kraijenhoff, revolutionary leader, 342 
Kronborg, 230 
Kriiger, President, 426 
Kuenen, Abraham, 431 
Kuyff, head of city police, 390 
Kuyper, Dr Abraham, 419 f., 422, 
424-427 

L'Oyseleur, Pierre, Seigneur de Vil- 

liers, 75 
La Hogue, 278 
La Motte, 71 
La Rochelle, 50 
Laaland, 182 

" Ladies' Peace," the (1529), 20 
Lafayette, 322 
Lalaing, George, Count of Renneberg, 

stadholder, 65, 71, 73 
Lamoral, Count of Egmont, stadholder, 

28 f., 31, 33-37, 39-43, 45 f-, 68 
Lamoussaye, French minister, 388 
Landrecies, 296 
Land's Advocate or Council-Pensionary, 

office of, 116 f. 
Landskrona. 230 
Language decree (1819), 383, 386 
Lauffeldt, 312 
Law, Edward, 301 
Lawrence, Henry, 325 
Le Brun, Duke of Piacenza, 361, 365 
League of the Beggars, 385 
Ledenburg, 133 f. 
Lee, 325 

Leeuwarden, 136 
Leeuwenhoek, Antoni van, 199 
Leffingen, loi 
Leghorn, 218 

Leicester, Earl of, see Dudley 
Leipzig, 364 f. 
Leopold I, Emperor, 290 
Leopold II, Emperor, 338 
Leopold, Archduke, Bishop of Passau, 

119 f. 
Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, King of 

Belgium, 398 ff., 403 
Leuchtenberg, Duke, of 398 
Lewis Ernest, Duke of Brunswick- 

Wolfenbiittel, see Brunswick- Wol- 

fenbiittel 
Lewis of Baden, 288 
Lewis of Nassau, 36 f ., 39, 41 , 44 f ., 47, 

49, 51-54, 58 f. 

Ley, the, 156 

Leyden, 12, 24, 55 f., 58-61, 74, 89 f., 
112, 128, 131, 183 f., 187 f., 190, 
195, 201, 314, 341, 358, 360, 365, 
408 ; University of, 60, 187, 190, 431 

"Libertines," 128 

Libri-Bagnano, 387, 389 f. 



INDEX 



455 



Liefkenshoek, 82, 402 

Li^ge, district and town of, 12 f., 21, 

39, 178 f., 249, 287 f., 310, 374 f., 

378, 380, 385, 393, 399 
Lievens, Jan, 200 
Ligny, 371 

Lilienrot, Count, 280 
Lille, 15, 21, 71, 245, 292, 309 
Lillo, 402 
Limburg, 2, 21, 149, 158, 288, 383, 

397 f., 400, 402 f., 416 f., 429 f. 
Linden, Cort van den, 428 
Lindhoven, 82 
Lingen, 96, 104 

Linschoten, Jan Huyghen van, 99 
Lionne, French minister, 245 
Lipsius, Justus, 188 
Lisbon, 159 f., 167 f., 173 f., 176, 229 
Listerdiep passage, 181 
Literary gilds, 190, 201 
Literature, 431 f. 
Livonia, 178 

Loevestein, 136, 143, 188, 207 
Lohman, Jonkheer Savornin, 425 
Lombardy, 20 

Lonck, Hendrik Cornelisz, 171 f. 
London, 122, 126, 396 f., et passim.'. 

Articles of (i 814), 395; conferences 

at, 162, 429; Conventions of, 376, 

402 
Loos, Admiral, 175 
Lorraine, 7 ff., 42, 282, 306 
Lothaire, i 

Louis II, Count of Flanders, i 
Louis XI of France, 8 ff., 12, 15 
Louis XIII of France, 149, 154, 195 
Louis XIV of France, 232, 239, 243 ff., 

248 f., 252 ff,, 260 f., 263 ff., 266- 

270, 272, 277 f., 280-283, 285, 290- 

293, 296 
Louis XV of France, 280, 311 
Louis XVI of France, 321, 331 
Louis, King of Hungary, 20 
Louis Bonaparte, 355-361, 363 
Louis de Male, Count of Flanders, i 
Louis del Rio, 44 f. 
Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, King 

of the French, 389, 397, 407 f. 
Louise Henrietta, wife of Frederick 

William of Brandenburg, 157 
Louise of Savoy, 20 
Louvain, 53, 90, 149, 290, 310, 380 f., 

388, 393, 399 
Louvois, Minister of War, 249 
Lowenthal, Count, 311 f. 
Liibeck, 25 

Lucas, Rear- Admiral, 346 
Luis de Requesens, Don, 56 f. 
Lumbres, the lord of, 50 f. 
Liineburg, 283 



Luther, Martin, 19, 22 f. 

Liitzen, 147, 179 

Luxemburg, duchy and town of, 2, 21, 

42, 66, 102, 267, 330, 371, 373 ff., 

378, 396 ff., 400, 402 f., 416, 421, 

429 
Luxemburg, French marshal, 249, 

258 f., 265, 278 f., 286 
Luzac, 408 

Maas, the, 51, 59, 62, 159, 220, 251, 
360 

Maasland, 357 

Maatschappij van Weldadigheid, 380 

Macassar, 229, 275 

Mackay, Baron, 422 f. 

Mackay Law, 423, 427 

Madagascar, 99 

Madrid, 29, 3i> 33 ff-, 37, 39, 41 f-, 44, 
49, 51, 64, 70, 75, 89, 94, 108, 113, 
156, 167 f., 171, 286 

Maerlandt, 190 

Maes, Nicholas, 200 

Maestricht, 45, 59, 74 f., 146, 149 f., 
156, 253, 258 f., 262, 264 f., 312, 
330 f., 341 f., 346, 368, 397 f., 400 

Magellan, Straits of, 99 f., 166 

Magnus Intercursus, 16 f., 122, 214 

Main, the, 308 

Malacca, 105, 275, 346 

Malaga, 289 

Malay Archipelago, 105, 160 f. 

"Malcontents," the, 71 

Malines, 380 

Malmesbury, Lord, see Harris 

Malplaquet, 293 

Malus Intercursus y 17 

Manhattan, 166, 177 

Mansfeld, Count of, 33, 40, 93 

Maranhao, 175 

Marcelis, Gabriel, 182 

Margaret, Archduchess, daughter of 
Mary and Maximilian, regent, 1 1 f ., 
15, 17-20, 22 f., 29 

Margaret, daughter of Louis de Male, 
Count of Flanders, and wife of Philip 
the Hardy, i f. 

Margaret, dowager Countess of Flan- 
ders, widow of Louis, II, i 

Margaret, Duchess of Parma, regent, 
28 f., 31, 33 ff., 37, 39, 41 ff" 70 

Marga*:et, sister of William VI of Hol- 
land and wife of John the Fearless, i 

Margaret of Burgundy, wife of William 
VI of Holland, i 

Margaret of York, wife of Charles the 
Bold, 7, 9 

Maria cape, 164 

Maria island, 165 

Maria Louisa of Hesse-Cassel, 304, 320 



456 



INDEX 



Maria Theresa, queen of Louis XIV, 

23.3, 239, 244, 281 
Maria Theresa of Austria, 303, 306- 

309 
Maria van Diemen cape, 165 
Marie de' Medici, regent, 120, 154 
Marie Louise, wife of Napoleon, 360, 

363 

Maris brothers, 432 

Marlborough, Duke of (John Chur- 
chill), 283, 286 ff., 290-295 

Mar>% princess royal, wife of William II 
of Orange, 152, 210, 234 

Mary, Princess, wife of William III of 
Orange, 263, 271, 273, 279, 284 

Mary, regent, queen of Louis of Hun- 
gary, 20, 22 ff., 26 f., 29 f., 85 

Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles 
the Bold and wife of Maximilian of 
Austria, 8-12 

Mary of Modena, 262 

Mary Tudor, Queen, 27 f. 

Massa, Isaac, 121 

Matanzas bay, 170 f. 

Matelief, Cornelis, 105 f,, 160 

Matsjan, 124 

Matthias, Archduke, 69 f., 72, 78 

Maure, Anton, 432 

Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, 
stadholder, 83 ff., 87-93, 95> loi- 
104, 106-109, ii3> 115 ff-> 120, 122, 
127-138, 139 ff., 143, 195, 198, 202, 
205, 249, 257, 314 

Maurice of Nassau-Ouwerkerk, Count, 
308 

Maurice of Saxony, 33, 49 

Maurier, Aubrey du, 135 

Mauritius, 105, 164 f. 

Mauritshuis, the Hague, 199 

Mauritsstad, 175 f. 

Maximilian Emmanuel, Elector of 
Bavaria, 281 

Maximilian Joseph, Emperor, 309 

Maximilian of Austria, Emperor, King 
of the Romans, 8, 10-15, i? ff-> 45 

May, Job, 365 

Mazarin, Cardinal, 154 f., 203, 208, 
232 

Mechlin, i, 5,.io, 14, 17, 19, 21, 24, 32, 
53 ff., 82, 310 

Medemblik, 112 

Medina- Coeli, Duke of, 54, 56 

Medway, the, 243, 252 

Meer, Jan van der, 200 

Meerman, John, 244 

Meeus, Ferdinand, 393 

Meghem, Count of, 31, 37, 39 f., 42 

Melliton, General, 365 

Mendo^a Furdado, Diogo de, 167 

Mendoza, Admiral of Aragon, 100, 102 



Menin, 290, 297, 309 

Mennonites, 22, 185 

Mercantile Marine, Dutch, formation 

of, 24 
Merchant Adventurers, Fellowship of, 

125 
Merode, Count Felix de, 392 f., 395 
Mesdag, Hendrik, 432 
Mesnager, 295 
Metzu, Gabriel, 200 
Meurs, 95, 102 
Meuse, the, 59, 74, 102, 144, 146, 288, 

361, 368 f., 399 f., 402 
Mexico, 170, 275 
Meyer, envoy, 345 f. 
Michigan, 408 
Middelburg, 51, 58, 70, 82, 98, 125, 

160, 247, 311 f-, 359 
Midderigh, revolutionary leader, 349 f. 
Middle kingdom, restoration of, i f., 

7f. 
Mijer, colonial minister, 416 
Milan, 56 

Milanese, the, 282, 297 
Military service, 362, 423, 426 
Million de Vindustrie, the, 383 
Milton, John, 188, 193 
Miranda, General, 341 
Mississippi Company, 301 
Moerdijk, the, 341 
Mohacs, battle of, 20 
Moluccas, 99, 105, 124 f., 160-163, 

233, 275 f., 330, 346 
Moncontour, battle of, 47 
Mondragon, Spanish commander, 58 f., 

62, 64, 94 
Monk, commanding English fleet, 

219 f., 239-242 
Monmouth, commanding English force, 

264 
Monnikendam, 112, 207 
Mons, 52, 70, 245, 264 f., 293, 310 
Mont-Cassel, 263 
Montesquieu, 323 
Montigny, the lord of, 31, 34, 39, 44, 

71 
Montmorency, Philip de. Count of 

Hoom, Admiral of Flanders, 31, 

33 ff., 37, 41 ff., 45 f., 68 
Montpensier, Duke of, 6i 
Mook, 59, 66, 272 
Morat, battle at, 9 
Moreau, General, 342 
Morgan, Colonel, 146 f. 
Moscow, 364 

Moucheron, Balthazar de, 98, 121 
Mouture, 382, 385 f. 
Mozambique, the, 106 
Maiden, 195 ff., 251 
Muidener Kring, 196 



INDEX 



457 



Mulder, Staffel, 407 

"Multatuli" (Douwes Dekker), 415, 

432 
Miinster, 22, 238 f., 248 f., 252 f., 

258 f., 261 ; congress of, 156; treaty 

of (1648), 157 f., 165, 177, 186, 202, 

205, 280, 330 f. 
Muscovy, 301 
Music, modern development of, 201 

Naarden, 55 f., 258 f. 

Namur, 2, 9, 21, 67 f., 71, 149, 228, 

279, 297, 310, 378 
Nancy, 8 f . 
Nantes, the Edict of. Revocation of, 

269 
Naples, 49, 297, 390 
Napoleon III, 417 
Napoleon Bonaparte, 353-364, 371 f., 

376, 379, 384 
Napoleon Louis, 361 
Nassau, 335 
Nassau river, 164 
Nassauische Erbverein, the, 429 
Nassau-Siegen, house of, 116, 138 
National, the, 387, 389 f. 
National Assembly, formation of, 348 ff. 
Navigation Act, 214, 233, 242 f., 

274 
Nederlandsche Handelsmaatschappij , De, 

379 

Neer, Aart van der, 200 

Neerwinden, 279, 341 

Negapatam, 328, 330 

Negro slave trade, 276 

Negumbo, 165 

Netherland confession, 128, 137 

Netherlands, the revolt of, 47-68 ; for- 
mation of the kingdom of, 367-375, 
376-388 

Netscher, Caspar, 200 

Neuss, battle at, 8 

Nevers, i 

New Amsterdam, 166, 177 

New England, 177 

New Guinea, 164 

"New Lighters," 407 

New Netherland, 166, 177, 235; Com- 
pany of, 166 

New South Wales, 164 

New York, 261, 325, 243 

New Zealand, 164 f. 

Newfoundland, 166, 325 

Ney, commanding French force, 371 

Neyen^ Father John, 106, 108 

Nicholas II, Tsar, 426 

Nicolas de Hames, 36 

Nieuport, 82, loi f., 310, 318 

Nieuwenaar, Count, stadholder, 83, 86, 
91 



Nieuwenhuis, Domela, 421 f., 425 

Nieuwerbrug, 259 

Nieuwpoort, 222 ff. 

Nijmwegen, 92, 113, 258, 263 ff., 287, 

299, 333, 335, 341, 360; treaty of 

(1678), 265-268, 270, 280 
Nobles, league of, 33-38, 41 
Noel. French ambassador, 348 ff. 
Noircarmes, royalist noble, 44 
Nordlingen, battle of, 148 
Nore, the, 243 
Norrkoping, 179 
North American colonies, British, 

revolt of, 322 f. 
North Brabant, 144, 146, 185, 258, 409 
North Holland, 56, 353 
North Holland Canal, 379 
North Quarter, the, 87 ff., 159 
Northern or Greenland Company, 124, 

166 
Nova Zembla, 124 
Nyborg, 231 
Nymphenburg, 307 

Obdam, see Wassenaer 

Oberstein, Count, 66 

Observateur, the, 385 

Ogle, Colonel, 133 

Oldenbarneveldt, John van. Advocate, 

pensionary, 83, 85-91, 96, 100 ff., 

104, 106 ff., 117, 119 ff., 123, 127- 

138, 140 ff., 165, 188, 193, 225, 257 
Oldenzaal, 96, 104 
Olinda, 171 f., 174 
Oliva, peace of, 231 
Ommelanden, 73 
Ondaatje, party leader, 333 
Oostergoo, 114 
Ootmarsum, 96 
Oquendo, Antonio de. Admiral, 151 f., 

173 ff. 
Orange, Princes of, see Fred. Henry, 

Maurice, Philip William, William 
Orange-Nassau, house of, 115 f., 396 f., 

421,423,429 i 

Orchies, 21, 71 
Orinoco, the, 170, 177 
Orleans, Duke of, see Louis Philippe 
Orloff, Count Alexis, 401 
Ormonde, Duke of, 289, 295 f. 
Ostade, Adrian van, 200 
Ostade, Isaac van, 200 
Ostend, 82, loi ff., 290, 292, 302, 308, 

310, 318, 330 
Ostend Company, 302 f. 
Otto, branch of house of Nassau, 374 
Oudenarde, 291, 309 f. 
Oudinot, Marshal, 359 ff. 
Ouwerkerk, field-marshal, 288 
Overyssel, passim 



4S8 



INDEX 



Oxenstiema, Axel, 148, 179-182, 188 
Oxford, Earl of, Colonel, 147 

Painting, art of, 199 f., 432 
Palembang, 275 

Palmerston, Lord, 396, 400-403 
Pangeran, the, native ruler, 161 
Pappenheim, commanding Imperialist 

army, 146 
Para, 178 
Vsivis, passim \ treaties of, 319, 369, 373, 

376, 396 
Parker, Hyde, Vice-Admiral, 329 
Parma, 43 

Partition treaties, 281 f. 
Pater, Adrian Jansz, 170, 173 f. 
Patrician oligarchy, 113, 300, 304, 315, 

332, 344 
Patriot party, 332-336, 344 
Paul IV, Pope, 32 
Paul of Russia, Emperor, 352 
Paulus, Pieter, 344, 347 ff. 
Pauw, Adrian, pensionary, 145, 148, 

157, 204, 209, 214 f., 218 
Pauw, Reinier, 131, 137 
"Pays de par de?^," 3 f. 
Peace Congress, the first (1899), 426 
Pecquinius, Chancellor of Brabant, 140 
Pefiaranda, Spanish envoy, 157 
Penn, naval commander, 216 
Pennington, Vice- Admiral, 151 f. 
Pemambuco, 171, 173 f. 
" Perpetual Edict," the, 67 
Perre, Paulus van der, 214 
Perrenot, Nicholas, 28 
Peru, 170, 275 
Peter the Great, Tsar, 302 
Philibert, Prince of Orange- ChSlons, 

30 
Philip II of Spain, 6, 22, 25-36, 39-42, 

45, 47 ff-, 49, 52, 57, 61-64, 67, 7°, 

73-76, 80, 83 f., 86, 92 ff., 96 f., 99, 

183, 187, 281 
Philip III of Spain, 108, 140, 280 
Philip IV of Spain, 148, 170, 232 f., 

239, 244 
Philip V of Spain, 282 f., 286, 290-293, 

296 f., 302 
Philip de Mamix, lord of Sainte Alde- 

gonde, 36, 44, 50, 52, 56 f., 77, 79 
Philip of Anjou, Duke, 281 f,, 291 
Philip of Baden, Bishop of Utrecht, 

14 
Philip of Cleef^ 13 
Philip of Hesse, 33, 41 
Philip of St Pol, 2 

Philip the Fair, Archduke, 11-17, 21 
Philip the Good, i ff., 5 ff., 48 
Philip the Hardy, Duke of Burgundy, 

I f . 



Philip William, Count of Buren, Prince 
of Orange, 30, 44, 113, 137 

Philippines, the, 106 

Picardy, 9, 95 

Piccolomini, commanding Imperialist 
troops, 149 

Pichegru, commander, 342 

Piedmont, 293 

Pierson, N. G., 423 f., 426 

Pijman, Minister of War, 352 

Pitt, 341 

Pius IV, Pope, 32 

Pius IX, Pope, 412 f. 

Plancius, Petrus, 98 

Plessis-les-Tours (1580), 74, 76 

Plymouth, 217 

Poeloe-Rum, 162, 233, 243 

Poictiers, battle of, i 

Pondicherry, 275 

Portland, 218 

Portsmouth, 324 

Potgieter, 408 

Potter, Louis de, 385 ff-, 39i, 395; 
Lettre de Demophile au Rot of, 386 

Potter, Paul, 200 

Povo, or the Reciff, 171 

Pozo, 171 f. 

"Pragmatic Army," the, 308 f. 

Pragmatic Sanction, the, 303, 306 

Prague, 139, 307 

"Precisians," 128 

Press laws, 384 ff., 391, 409 

Price, Richard, 323 

Priestley, 323 

Primary education, 355, 380, 409, 414, 
420, 422, 425, 431 

Prins Willem, ship, 173 f. 

Prinsenhof, Delft, 79 f. 

Provincial Estates, powers and func- 
tions of, 112 ff. 

Provintie van Utrecht^ ship, 174 

Prussian invasion, 335 f. 

Pultova, 301 

Purmerend, 113 

Putte, Fransen van de, 416, 419 

Putten, 226 

Pyrenees, peace of the (1659), 228, 
231 f., 274 

Quadruple Alliance, 302 
Quatre Bras, 371 f., 406 
Quesnoy, 295 f. 
Quotisatie, 4 

Raad-Pensionaris, powers and func- 
tions of, 117 

Railways, 415 

Ramel, member of National Conven- 
tion, 345 

Ramillies, 290 



INDEX 



459 



Rammekens, 84, 149 
Rastatt, peace of (17 14), 297 
Ratisbon, truce of (1684), 268 
Reading-societies, 342 
Reciff, the, 171-175, 177 
"Reduction, Treat}' of," 93 
Reformation movements, 2 S. 
"Reformed" congregations, 128 
Regnier, lord of Groeneveldt, 140 
Reingoud, Jacques, 86 
Reinierz, 165 

Rembrandt van Rhyn, 199 ff., 432 
Remonstrants, 129, 132 f., 136 f., 142, 

193 
Remonstratie, 129 
Rene of Lorraine, Duke, 8 f. 
Rene of Nassau, 30 
Repartitie, iii 
Repelaer, envoy, 342 
Requesens, 61 f., 64 
"Request," the, 37 f. 
Reveil movement, 407 
Rewbell, plenipotentiary, 345 f. 
Rheims, 32 

Rheinberg, 95, 100, 102, 104, 288 
Rhetoric, Chambers of, 190 f. 
Rhine, the, 59, 62, 82, 102, 119, 149, 

288, 291, 293, 358, 361, 368, 371, 

379 

Rhineland, 40, 49, 58, 139 

Ricardot, president of the Privy Coun- 
cil, 107 

Richelieu, Cardinal, 142 f., 148 f., 154 

Rights of Man, the, 332 

Rijks Museum, Amsterdam, 199 

Rio de Janeiro, 169 

Rio Grande, the, 175 

Rio Negro, the, 178 

Ripperda, ambassador, 302 

Ripperda, Calvinist leader, 55 

Robert de la Marck, 13 

Rochefoucault, 360 

Rochussen, artist, 432 

Rochussen, J. J., 415 

Rocroi, 155 

Roda, 65 

Rodney, Admiral, 327, 346 

Roell, Jonkheer Johan, 424 

Roell, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 358, 
380 

Roemerswaal, 14, 58 

Roeremonde, 53 f., 146, 288, 413 

Roeskilde, 230 

Rogier, Charles, 393 ff. 

Rome, 19, 361, 419 

Ronkens, burgomaster, 299 

Rooke, Sir George, Admiral, 289 

Rotterdam, 12, 59, 83, 90, 98 f., 112, 
118, 129, 131, 136 f., 159, 300, 334, 
341, 364, 379 



Roucoux, 310 

Rouille, French agent, 290 

Rouppe, burgomaster, 393 

Rousseau, 323, 332 

Royal Academies of the Arts, 380 

Royal African Company, 234 

Royal Charles, flag-ship, 243 

Royal James, flag-ship, 252 

Royal Netherland Institute for Science, 
Letters and the Fine Arts, 358 

Rudolph II, Emperor, 119 

Rump ParHament, the, 219 

Rupert, Prince, 216, 239-242, 259 

Russell, Admiral, 271 

Russian trade, 98, 121, 275, 301 

Ruysch, Nicholas, 226 

Ruysdael, Jacob, 200 

Ruyter, Michael Adriansz de, Admiral, 
194, 216 flf., 219 f., 228 f., 231, 234 f., 
237 f., 240 f., 243, 252, 259, 289 

Ryswyck, 107, 140, 280; peace of, 280 

Saba, 328 

Sadowa, 416 

Saftingen, 331 

Sainte Aldegonde, see Philip de Mamix 

Salamanca, 15 

Saldanha bay, 346 

Sallant, 114 

Salmasius, 188 

San Francisco fort, 171 f. 

San Jorge fort, 171 f. 

San Salvador, 167 ff. 

San Thome de Guiana, 170 

Sand'wdch, Earl of, 237 

Sasbout, councillor of state, 65 

Sas-van-Gent, 82, 156 

Savoy, 286, 296 

Saxe, Maurice de. Marshal, 309-312 

Saxe- Weimar, Duke of, 368 

Saxony, 272 

Scaliger, Josephus Justus, 188 

Schaep, Gerard, 204, 214 

Schaepman, Dr, 422, 424 f. 

Scheffer, artist, 432 

Scheldt, the, 23, 79, 82, 89 f., 150 f., 
156, 158, 248, 259, 311, 330 f-, 359, 
361, 379, 399,401 f., 428 

Schenck, 149 

Schepens, or sheriffs, 6 

Scheveningen, 155, 220, 232, 343, 366 

Schiedam, 112, 207 

Schieringers, 14 

Schimmelpenninck, Count, 408 f. 

Schimmelpenninck, Rutger Jan, coun- 
cil-pensionary, 344, 349, 353-356 

Schleswig, 181 

Scholte, preacher, 407 

Schomberg, Marshal, 272 

Schonbrunn, treaty of, 359 



460 



INDEX 



Schonen, 230 

Schools, 414 f., 420, 422 f., 425 ff., 431 

Schoonhoven, 112, 335 

Schouburg (theatre), the, Amsterdam, 

201 
Schouty or chief judge, 6 
Schouten, Willem, 168 
Schouwen, 62, 359 
Schutterij, 255 f. 
Schuurman, Anna Maria, 197 f. 
Scribe and Auber, La Muette de Por- 

tici of, 390 
" Sea Terror of Delft," the, 169 
Secondary and technical education, 

416,431 
Seeland, 230 

Selden, Mare clausum of, 189 
S^monville, French ambassador, 353 
Seneff, 262 

Senlis, treaty of (1493), 13 
** Separatists," the {de Afgescheidenen), 

407 
Seramg, 380, 383 
Settinge, 4 

Seven Bishops, acquittal of (1688), 271 
Seven Years' War, 320, 323 
Seventeen, College of the, 100 
"Sharp Resolution," the, 131 
Sheemess, 243, 273 
Shetlands, the, 216 
Ship-money, 215 
Siam, 105, 163 
Sicilies, the two, 306 
Sidney, Sir Philip, 87 
Siegen, 371, 374 
Sieyes, 345 f. 

Sigismund of Austria, Duke, 8 
Silesia, 306 ff., 406 
Simonszoon, Menno, 22 
Six, burgomaster, 200 
Skagerak, the, 182 
Slaak, the, 146 
Slangenburg, General, 288 
Slave trade, 276; abolition of, 415 f. 
Slingelandt, pensionary, 226 
Sluis, 12 f., 82, 89, 103, 254, 311, 330, 

342 
Social Contract, the, 332 
Social- Democratic Bond, the, 425 
" Social-Democratic Workmen's Party," 

the, 425 
" Socialist Bond," the, 425 
Sommelsdijk, lord of, see Aerssens 
Sonoy, Diedrich, stadholder, 50, 87 ff. 
Sophie, Queen, 417, 421 
Sound, the, 180 ff., 229 ff. 
South Beveland, 58, 345 
South Brabant, 383 
South Holland, 58, 60, 62, 64 
South Sea Company, 301 



Southampton, treaty of (1625), 163 

Southwold bay, 237, 252 

Spa, 93 

" Spanish Fury,;' the, 66 

Spanish Succession, War of the, 280 ff ., 

285-297, 299 
Spectateur Beige, the, 384 f. 
Spice trade, 105, 161 ff., 276 
Spiegel, Hendrik Laurensz, 191 f. 
Spinola, Ambrosio de, 103 ff., 107, 120, 

139 f., 145, 150 
Spinoza, Baruch, 190 
Spinozan system, the, 190 
Spitsbergen, 99, 123 f., 143, 166 
St Agatha, convent of, 79 
St Anthony fort, 144 
St Antonio de Padua, 174 
St Bartholomew, massacre of, 53, 78 
St Denis, 265 
St Dizier, 30 
St Eustatius, 323, 327 
St Germain, 283 
St Germain-en-Laye, 245 
St Isabella fort, 144 
St JagOy ship, 174 
St John, Henry, Viscount Bolingbroke, 

294 f. 
St John, Oliver, 212 ff. 
St Martin, 328 
St Omer, 40 

St Quentin, battle at (1557), 28 
St Trond, 39 
St Venant, 294 
St Vincent, 171 
Stad en Landen, 93, iii 
Stadholders, powers and functions of, 

4f-, 115 f. 
Stair, Lord, 307 
Standdard, De, 420 
Stanley, Sir William, 87 f. 
Staten river, 164 
States- Flanders, 103 
States-General, constitution of, 3 f., 

Ill f-, 345 
Steen, Jan, 200 
Steenbergen, 82 
Steenwijk, 93, 258 
Steinkirk, 279 
Stevin, Simon, 198 

Steyn, council-pensionary, 316, 318 f. 
Stock-dealing, 322 
Stockholm, 121, 201, 230 
Stoke, Melis, 190 
Story, Rear-Admiral, 352 
Strafford, Earl of, 152 
Strafford, Lord, 295 
Strasburg, 267, 280 
Strickland, Walter, 203 f., 212 f. 
Strickland, William, 154 
Stuyvesant, Peter, 177 



INDEX 



461 



Suffren, French admiral, 328 

Sugar plantations, 276, 340 

Sumatra, 163 

Surat, 275 

Surinam, 243, 248, 261, 276, 327, 347, 

416, 418; Society of, 345 
Survivance Acte c^e (1631), 145, 202 
Swammerdam, Jan, 199 
Sweden and Holland, relations of, 178— 

182 
Swedo-Dutch Company, 179 
Swiss Cantons, the, 8 

Tableau sommaire des pretensions , 330 

Tagus, the, 289 

Tallard, Marshal, 288 

Talleyrand, 349, 352, 396, 400 f. 

Tasman, Abel, 164 

Tasmania, 164 f. 

Tasman 's head, 165 

Tasman 's peninsula, 165 

Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, Dutch 

translation of, 197 
T^ligny, Louise de, see Coligny 
Tehgny, Sieur de, 78 
Temple, Sir William, 244 f ., 248 f ., 265 
Ten Days' Campaign, 399 {., 406 
Terburg, Gerard, 200 
Termonde, 53 
Temate, 124, 160 
Temeuzen, canal of, 379 
Terschelling, island, 241 
Terscholen, 146 
Texel, the, 220, 237, 243, 329, 347, 

352 
Textile industries, 183 
Thames, the, 238, 241, 243, 252, 259 
Thijssen, Marten, 173 f., 181 f. 
Thirty Years' War, 139, 143, 148, 155, 

178, 188, 20I 

Tholen island, 146 

Thomas of Savoy, Prince, 149 

Thorbecke, Johan Rudolf, 408,411 ff., 

415-419, 424, 430 
Tichelaer, barber, 255, 257 
Tidor, 105, 160 
Tielemans, 387 
Tilburg, 410 
Tilly, Coimt, 255 f. 
Tilsit, peace of (1807), 359 
Tonga islands, 164 
Torbay, 273, 277 
Torcy, French minister, 294 
Torre, Count de, 175 f. 
Torrington, Admiral, 278 
Torstensson, General, 141, 180 ff. 
Toulon, 278, 289 ff. 
Toulouse, Count of, 289 
Toumay, 21, 32, 40, 245, 293, 297, 

309 f., 380 



Tourville, Admiral, 278 
Towerson, Gabriel, 163 
Trade and industries, prosperous state 

of, 6, 23 ff., I20ff. 
Transvaal, 420 

Treaty of the XVIII Articles, 398 ff. 
Treaty of the XXIV Articles, 400 f., 

403 
Trent, Council of, 35 f. 
Treves, 32 

Trevor, English ambassador, 245 
Trier, 7 f. 

Trip, Elias, 178, 182 
Triple Alliance, 245, 248 
Troelstra, 425, 427 
Tromp, Comelis, 237 f., 240 f. 
Tromp, Martin, Admiral, 151 f., 175, 

194, 216-220, 289 
Troubles, Council of, 43, 45 
Tulip mania, 184 

Turenne, General, 141, 249, 258, 286 
Turkish advance, 19, 287 
Tumhout, 95 

Tuscany, Grand Duchy of, 306 
Twelve years' truce, 109 f., 1 19-126, 

139, 196 
Twente, 114, 226 

Uilenburg, Saskia, 201 

Uitgeest, Dirk Simonsz, 170 

Ulrum, 407 

Union, Act of, Utrecht, 210 

Union, the, association, 384 f. 

United East- India Company, creation 

of, ICO 

"United States of Belgium," 338 
Universities, 60, 181, 187 ff., 380, 431 
Upper Gelderland, 297 
UsseHncx, Willem, 165 ff. 
Utrecht, town, bishopric, and district 

of, passim ; treaties of, 285-301 , 331; 

Union of, 72 f., 89, 115; University 

of, 188, 190, 380, 431 
Uyttenbogaert, Johannes, 128, 13c, 188 

Valckenier, Gillis, 246, 260, 264, 266 f. 
Valckenier, revolutionary leader, 349 
Valdez, commander, 59 f. 
Valenciennes, 40, 52 f., 263 
Vallecilla, Francisco de. Vice- Admiral, 

174 
Vahny, 340 
Van Alp hen river, 164 
Van Asperen, 256 
Van Bankhem, banker, 256 f. 
Van Berckel, burgomaster, 323 
Van Beuningen, diplomatist, 230, 245 f., 

248, 264, 266 f. 
Van Beverningh, treasurer-general, 

221-224, 245, 258, 260, 264 f., 267 



462 



INDEX 



Van Blauw, envoy, 342, 345 f. 
Van Bylandt, Admiral, 324 
Van Dam, revolutionary leader, 342 
Van de Spiegel of Goes, Laurens 
Pieter, council-pensionary, 332,335- 

342 
Van de Weyer, envoy, 393, 395, 400, 

404 
Van den Berg, Count, stadholder, 79 
Van den Bosch, General, 380 
Van der Capellen, 141 
Van der Capellen tot de Pol, Jan Dirk, 

323, 327 f., 332 
Van der Capellen van den Marsch, 

332 ff. 
Van der Duyn van Maasdam, Baron, 

364 f. 
Van der Fosse, Baron, 390 
Van der Goes, 425 
Van der Myle, 121, 127, 142 
Van der Straeten, advocate, 384 
Van Diemen, Antony, 164 f. 
Van Diemen, Maria, 165 
Van Diemen cape, 164 
Van Diemen gulf, 164 
Van Diemen river, 164 
Van Diemen's Land, 164 
Van Dussen, envoy, 294 
Van Eyk, Spenger, 424 
Van Galen, Jan, Admiral, 217 f. 
Van Ghent, Admiral, 243 
Van Gogh, Vincent, 432 
Van Haersolte, 352 
Van Hagenbach, Peter, 8 
Van Hall, F. A., 406, 408, 413 ff. 
Van Haren, Otto Zwier, 313, 316 
Van Hasselt, 352 

Van Heemskerk, J., 416 f., 419 ff., 422 
Van Heemskerk, Jacob, 99, 106, 123 
Van Heemstra, Baron S., 415 
Van Heyliger, governor of St Eustatius, 

323 
Van Hoeft, 352 
Van Hogelanden, Boreel, 408 
Van Hogendorp, Gijsbert Karel, 364- 

367, 372, 380 
Van Hoogstraeten, Samuel, 200 
Van Hoornbeck, Isaac, pensionary, 300 
Van Hout, Jan, 60 
Van Houten, Samuel, 423 f. 
Van Knuyt, plenipotentiary, 157 
Van Kol, 425 
Van Langen, member of Executive 

Council, 350 
Van Lennep, J., 192, 432 
Van Limburg-Stirum, Count, 364 f. 
Van Lynden van Sandenburg, Count, 

420 f. 
Van Maanen, Minister of Justice, 358, 

385-393 



Van Marie, leader of the federalists, 349 

Van Meteren, chronicler, 195 

Van Mieris, Frans, 200 

Van Naaldwijk, Jan, 12 

Van Nagell, 369 

Van Neck, Jacob, 99 

Van Noort, Olivier, 99 

Van Odijk, Seigneur, 247, 267, 274 

Van Poortvliet, Tak, 423 f. 

Van Prinsterer, G. Groen, 411, 414 f., 
419, 424 f. 

Van Raalte, preacher, 408 

Van Rechteren, Count, 301 

Van Reigersberg, Nicholas, 142 

Van Rheede, Godard, lord of Ameron- 
gen, 267 

Van Rhoon, Count Bentinck, 332 

Van Rhyn, see Rembrandt 

Van Riebeck, Jan, 165 

Van Schooten, Francis, 198 

Van Slingelandt, Simon, 285, 301, 303 f. 

Van Speult, governor of Amboina, 163 

Van Stoutenberg, William, 140 

Van Stralen, Antony, 43 

Van Swieten, General, 419 

Van Tienhoven, Cornells, 423 

Van Waesberg, 201 

Van Weede, Everhard, lord of Dijk- 
veld, 267 

Van Welderen, ambassador, 325 f. 

Van Zuylen van Nyevelt, Baron, 416 f. 

"Vaste Colleges," establishment of, 5 

Vauban, 279 

Vaucelles, peace of (1556), 27 

Vecht river, 195 

Veere, 58, 118, 274, 311, 359 

Velde, Adrian van der, 200 

Velde, William van der, 200 

Vendome, 291 f. 

Venetia, 368 

Venice, 121, 195 

Venloo, 146, 288, 341, 346 

Verdugo, Spanish commander, 93 f. 

Verdun, treaty of (843), i 

Vere, Sir Francis, 93, loi f. 

Vere, Sir Horace, 139 

Vereenigte Provintien, ship, 173 f. 

Verhoef, goldsmith, 256 f. 

Verhuell, Admiral, 355 f., 358, 361, 367 

Versailles, 282, 290, 308 

Vervins, peace of (1598), 96 

Vetkoopers, 14 

Victoria, 164 

Vienna, 69, 266, 287 f., 302, 306 f.; 
congress of, 37° f-> 373, 375, 4°°; 
treaties of, 274, 277, 303, 396, 429 

Viglius van Zwychem van Aytta, coun- 
cillor, 22, 29, 31, 33, 35 f., 65 

Vigo, 289 

Villars, Marshal, 291-294, 296 



INDEX 



463 



Villeroy, Marshal, 279, 288, 290 

Vilvoorde, 392, 394 

Vin et Pain, Colonel, 259 

Vincent, General Baron, 369 

Virginia, 177 

Visscher, Anna^ 197 

Visscher, Maria Tesselschade, 197 

Visscher, Roemer, 191, 197 

Vitringa, leader of the federalists, 349 

Vivien, pensionary, 226, 247 

Vlieter, 352 

Voetius, 188 

Vollenhove, 114 

Voltaire, 323 

Von Thulemeyer, Prussian ambassador, 

335 
Vondel, Joost van den, 192 ff., 197, 432 
Voome, 254 
Voome canal, the, 379 
Vossius, Gerardus Johannes, 188 
Vossius, Isaac, 188 
Vreede, revolutionary leader, 349 f. 
Vries, Gerrit de, 419 

Waal, the, 59, 89, 104, 149, 345, 360 

Waardgelders, 130-133 

Waas, 92 

Waerdenburgh, Jonckheer Diederik 

van, 171 f., 174 
Waerwyck, Wybrand van, 99, 105 
Wageningen, 431 
Wagram, 359 
Waigat, the, 99 
Walcheren, 51, 64, loi, 248, 254, 311, 

345, 359 
Walcheren, ship, 174 
Waldeck, George Frederick von. Count, 

239> 258, 267, 269, 272, 278 
Waldeck, Prince of, 310, 312 
Walpole, Robert, 303, 307 
Walram, branch of house of NaSsau, 

374 
Walraven, lord of Brederode, 107 
Wameton, 297 
Wamsfeld, combat of, 87 
Wassenaer, Jacob van, lord of Obdam, 

220, 229 f., 237 f. 
Wassenaer-Twickel, Count of, 309 ff., 

317 
Waterloo, 371 f., 377, 406 
Wauthier, Major-General, 390 
Wavre, 371, 393 
Webb, General, 292 
Weingarten, abbey of, 354 
Wellington, 366, 371, 396 
Werf, Pieter Adriaanzoon van der, 60 
Wesel, 100, 144 
Wesenbeke, Jacob van, 50 
West Coast of Africa, the, company for 

trading on, 179 



West Flanders, 82, loi, 309 

West Friesland, 13, 52, 54, 87 

West India Company, 147, 155, 159- 

185, 276, 305, 339 f., 345 
West Indies, 158, 166, 169 f., 214, 216, 

318 f., 346 f., 416 
Westergoo, 114 

Westminster, peace of (1674), 261 
Westphalia, treaty of, 270, 274 
West- Quarter, district of Groningen, 

114 
Whale fishery, 123, 166 
White, Charles, 386 
White Sea trade, 98, 121 
Wild Coast of Guiana, the, traders on, 

Wildrik, member of Executive Council, 

350 
Wilhelmina, Queen, 421, 426-428, 429 
Wilhelmina of Prussia, Frederika 
Louise, wife of William V, 321, 335- 
338 
Wilhelmus, the, 333 
Willebroek, 42 

Willekens, Jacob, admiral-in-chief, 167 

William the Silent, Prince of Orange, 

stadholder, 29 ff., 33-37, 39-42, 44 f-* 

47, 49-83, 87, 90, 103, 113, 115 ff-, 

128, 187, 191, 268, 285; Apology of, 

75 

William II of Orange, stadholder, 116, 
143, 152, 194, 202-211, 212, 226, 
249, 261, 268, 298, 314, 321 

William III of Orange, stadholder, 
116, 152, 194, 227, 232, 234, 
241 f., 246 ff,, 250 f., 253 f., 256 f., 
258-273, 274-284, 285, 287, 289, 
298 ff., 301, 303, 312, 314 f-, 317, 
320 f., 324,431 

William IV of Orange, stadholder, 
304 f., 306-315, 316 f., 321 

WilUam V of Orange, stadholder, 316, 
319, 321-326, 327-336, 343, 346, 

354 
William I, King of the Netherlands, VI 

Prince of Orange, 341 ff., 354, 364- 

367, 369-374- 376 f., 379 ff-, 385, 387, 

392 f., 395-398, 400-406 
William II (William Frederick), King 

of the Netherlands, 392 f., 395, 

398 f., 401, 405-410 
William III, King of the Netherlands, 

410, 411-418, 419-425, 429; Prince 

of Orange, son of, 417, 421 
William, Count of Holland, husband 

of Margaret of Burgundy, i 
William, Count-Palatine of Neuburg, 

119 f. 
William de Blois, lord of Treslong, 50 f. 
William de la Marck, lord of Lumey , 50 



464 



INDEX 



William de la Marck, ruler of Li^ge, 12 

William Frederick, stadholder, 153, 203, 

205 ff., 209 f., 223, 225, 227, 238, 285 

William Lewis of Nassau, stadholder, 

83, 90-93, loi, 103 f., 107, 115, 

130 f., 13s, 138 
William of Jiilich and Cleves, 21 
William of Nassau, Count, 150 
William of Nassau, lord of Zuilestein, 

271 
William of Nassau-Dillenburg, Count, 

29 
Willoughby, Hugh, 123 
Willoughby, Lord, 89 
Winter, Jan de, Vice-Admiral, 347 
Winwood, Sir Ralph, 123 
Witsen, Nicolaes, 267, 274 
Witt, Jacob de, see De Witt 
Witt, John de, see De Witt 
Witte de With, see De With 
Woerden, 258, 335 
Wool and cloth trade, 7, 16, 125 
Worcester, battle of, 208, 212 
Worms, diet of (1521), 19, 23 
Wouvermans, Philip, 200 
Wouw, 88 

Wrangel, Swedish admiral, 182, 230 
Wynendael, 292 
Wyvants, Jan, 200 



Xanten, treaty of (i 614), 120 

Y, the, 24, 55, 181, 416 

Ymuiden, 416 

York, Duke of, second son of George 

III, 341 f., 353 
York, royal camp at, 155 
Yorke, British ambassador, 318, 323 ff. 
Yorke, Sir Robert, 87 f. 
Ypres, 6, 24, 40, 73, 79, 82, 264, 297, 

309 
Yssel, the, 89, 104, 251 

Zaandam, 98, 302 

Zederik canal, the, 379 

Zeeland, passim 

Zevenwolden, 114 

Zierikzee, 58, 62, 64 

Zoutman, Rear-Admiral, 328 f. 

Zuid-Beveland, 359 

Zuid-Willemsvaart canal, the, 379 

Zuilestein, 271 

Zutphen,2i,55 f., 72, 82, 87 f., 92, 113 

Zuyder-Zee, the, 24, 56, 72, 98, 195, 

251 ; department, 361 
Zwijn, the, 23 
Zwijndrecht, 407 
Zwingli, Zwinglians, 22, 38 
ZwoUe, 114, 226 



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THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SERIES 

Edited by Sir G. W. Prothero, K.B.E., Litt.D., LL.D., F.B.A., 
Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and formerly 
Professor of History in the University of Edinburgh. 

The Volumes already published are indicated by an asterisk, those 
not so marked are in preparation, 

*i The French Monarchy, 1483 — 1789. 

By A. J. Grant, M.A., Professor of History in the University, 
Leeds. With 4 Maps. 2 vols. Second Edition. 10/- net. 

2 Germany and the Empire, 1493 — 1792. 

By A. F. Pollard, M.A., Professor of History in University 
College, London. 2 vols. 

*3 Italy from 1494 to 1790. 

By Mrs H. M. Vernon (K. Dorothea Ewart). With 4 Maps. 
7/6 net. 

*4 Spain; its greatness and decay, 1479 — 1788. 

By Major Martin A. S. Hume. With an introduction by Edv^^ard 
Armstrong, M.A. With 2 Maps. Third Edition, revised by E. Arm- 
strong. 8/- net. 

*5 Slavonic Europe. A Political History of Poland and 
Russia from 1447 to 1796. 

By R. NiSBET Bain. 7/6 net. 
*6 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era, 1789 — 1815. 

By J. Holland Rose, Litt.D. With 6 Maps and Plans. Sixth 
Edition revised. 9/- net. 

*7 Modern France, 1815- — 1913- 

By Dr Emile Bourgeois. 2 vols. With a Map. 21/- net. 

*8 Germany, 1815 — 1890. 

By Sir A. W. Ward, F.B.A., LL.D., Litt.D., Master of Peterhouse, 
editor-in-chief of the Cambridge Modern History. Vol. I. 1815 — 
1852. With a Map. 14/- net. Vol. H. 1852 — 1871. With 19 Maps 
and Plan. Sections by Spenser Wilkinson, M.A. 12/6 net. Vol. 
in. 1871 — 1890. With 2 supplementary chapters. 14/- net. 

9 Austria-Hungary since 18 15. 

By R. W. Seton-Watson, D.Litt., of New College, Oxford; author 
of "Racial Problems in Hungary" and other works. 

*io The Union of Italy, 1815 — 1895. 

By W. J. Stillman, L.H.D., formerly "Times" Correspondent in 
Rome. With 4 Maps. New Edition, revised, with an Epilogue by 
G. M. Trevelyan. {Out of print.) 

*ii Modern Spain, 1815 — 1898. 

By H. Butler Clarke, M.A., sometime Taylorian Teacher of 
Spanish in the University of Oxford. With a Memoir by the Rev. 
W. H. HuTTON, D.D., Fellow and Tutor of St John's College, 
Oxford. 7/6 net. 

*I2 The Expansion of Russia, 1815 — 1900. 

By F. H. Skrine, F.S.S., formerly LC.S. With 3 Maps. Third 
Edition, revised and corrected. 7/6 net. 

*I3 The Ottoman Empire, 1801 — 1913. 

By W. Miller, M.A. With 4 Maps. 10/- net. 

*I4 History of Holland. 

By Rev. G. Edmundson, D.Litt., formerly Fellow and Tutor of 
Brasenose College, Oxford. With 2 Maps. 22/6 net. 



CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SERIES 

*I5 Switzerland since 1499. (Immediately.) 

By Dr W. Oechsli, Professor of History in the University of Zurich. 

*i6 Scandinavia; a Political History of Denmark, Nor- 
way and Sweden, 1513 — 1900. 

By R. NiSBET Bain. With 5 Maps. {Out of print.) 

*I7 History of Scotland. 

By P. Hume Brown, M.A., LL.D., Historiographer-Royal for Scot- 
land, Fraser Professor of Ancient (Scottish) History and Palaeo- 
graphy in the University of Edinburgh. In 3 vols. 
Vol. I. To the Accession of Mary Stewart. With 7 Maps. Second 

Impression. 8/- net. 
Vol. II. From the Accession of Mary Stewart to the Revolution of 

1689. With 4 Maps and Plan. 8/- net. 
Vol. III. From the Revolution of 1689 to the Disruption of 1843. 

8/- net. 

*i8 Ireland, 1494 — 1905. 

With Two Introductory Chapters. By the late William O'Connor 
Morris. New Edition, revised, with an additional chapter (1868- 
1905), notes, etc., by R. Dunlop, M.A. With Map. {Out of print.) 

*I9 The United States of America, 1765 — 1865. 

By Edward Channing, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History in 
Harvard University. With 3 Maps. 6/- net. 

*20 Canada under British Rule, 1760 — 1905. 

By Sir J. G. Bourinot, K.C.M.G., Litt.D., LL.D. Revised, with 
an additional section by G. M. Wrong, M.A. With 8 Maps. {Out 
of print.) 

21 Latin America since 1500. 

By F. A. Kirkpatrick, M.A., formerly Scholar of Trinity College, 
Cambridge. 

22 British India, 1600 — 1912. 

By J. S. Cotton, M.A. 

*23 Europe and the Far East, 1506 — 19 12. 

By Sir R. K. Douglas. New Edition, revised, with an additional 
chapter by J. H. Longford, late H.M. Consul at Nagasaki. With 
5 Maps. 9/- net. 

*24 A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien 

Races. 

By Sir Harry H. Johnston, K.C.B., G.C.M.G. With 8 Maps. 

Fourth Edition, rewritten and enlarged. 14/- net. 

*25 A History of the Australasian Colonies, from their 
foundation to the year 191 1. 

By Edward Jenks, M.A. With 2 Maps. Third Edition. {Out of 
print.) 

*26 Outlines of English Industrial History. 

By W. Cunningham, D.D., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge, and Ellen A. McArthur, Lecturer at Girton College. Third 
Edition. 6/- net. 

*2*j An Essay on Western Civilization in its Economic 
Aspects. 

By W. Cunningham, D.D. Vol. L Ancient Times. With 5 Maps. 
6/- net. Vol. H. Mediaeval and Modem Times. With 3 Maps. 
4/6 net. 



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